Rs 10K fine on petitioner seeking check dams across Palar river

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition with a cost of Rs.10,000 on a litigant for constructing check dams for every 10 kilometres along with the flow of the Palar River in the Vellore and Chengalpattu districts.

The first bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala imposed the cost while dismissing public interest litigation filed by D Rajagopal who claims to be the president of Lok Tantrik Janata Dal.

The petitioner submitted that about one lakh cusecs of water were drained into the Bay of Bengal in 2015 without any use.

"People of Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu are relying upon the Palar river. However, due to the unavailability of check dams to store the water, mostly the water is draining into the sea. Therefore, it is essential to construct check dams every 10 kilometres throughout the Palar river in unified Vellore and Chengalpattu districts, " the petitioner submitted.

Meanwhile, the Chief Justice observed the plea had been filed merely as an attention-seeking act.

" The PIL does not have any technical information about the amount of water flow in Palar river and where the dams should be constructed exactly. Constructing check dams across the rivers is a policy decision to be made by the government and the court cannot order the government to construct check dams, " the CJ observed.

The court further dismissed the plea along with a cost of Rs.10,000 by observing that it was filed for publicity of the petitioner.