Notice to government on maintenance of tanks

The Division Bench Comprising Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice M. Sundar before whom the PIL moved by Change India represented by its Director A. Narayanan came up issued notice to the Secretary, Public Works Department, and the Engineer-in-Chief Water Resources Department. The bench then posted the case for further hearing to September 15, 2017.

Narayanan in his plea submitted the Government in response to the Madras High Court directions had come up with the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachments (TNPTEE) Act 2007. While section 3 of the Act insists the Government to undertake a survey, based on the revenue records of tanks in every district and to prepare proper charts and registers of the same, section 4 insisted on the appointment of survey officers to prepare charts of exact status of the tanks and hand them over to the PWD for maintenance.

He further submitted that as per the Act, the encroachments if any on such tanks shall be removed. But despite the passage of a decade since the Act had come into being, the objectives set out in the above well-meaning law have not been fulfilled.

Stating that the RTI enquiry reveals that out of 21 Sub- Divisions the survey was completed only in 6 Sub Divisions and in 11 sub- Divisions encroachments have not been removed, the petitioner said, “If the authorities had taken sincere steps to enumerate, document and maintain those vital water resources free of encroachments, Tamil Nadu would not pay this high price in the form of unprecedented water scarcity that is prevailing now.”