Look into suggestions on wetland to halt deluge: HC to TN Govt

Chennai, Sep 6 (PTI) Madras High Court today directed theTamil Nadu government to look into suggestions made in a PILagainst mindless conversion of wetland areas so as to avertflooding in the city like last year. A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul andJustice R Mahadevan gave the directive while disposing of thepetition which advocated amendment of Section 47-A of theTamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act 1971 to imposecertain conditions for preservation of the wetland areas. Petitioner S D Premchand, former chairman of MadurantakamMunicipality, while referring to last year deluge cited a newsreport which said one of the main causes of the flooding wasthat wet lands in the city had shrunk from 80 per cent inthe 1980s to just 15 per cent now due to unplanned rampanturbanisation. He contended that in order to prevent mindless misuse oflands adjoining water bodies like lakes conditions may beincorporated in Section 47-A of the Tamil Nadu Town andCountry Planning Act 1971. He attributed the flooding last year to unauthorisedconstructions carried out by encroaching water bodies and nearthem. The bench, referring to a full court judgement on theissue, in its order said what was classified as a water bodyarea cannot be converted for any other use. "Thus, in our view that approach would also equally have tobe applied by keeping in mind the problem of conversion of wetland areas for urbanisation," it said. "We would call upon the State government to look into thesuggestions of the petitioner for amendment of the section tofurther subserve the intent of the amendment carried out onJanuary 1, 2011 for preserving the wet land areas." The petitioner had advocated an appropriate amendment couldbe considered to the effect that no development/constructionshould be allowed at any cost in wetlands. PTI COR VGN VSRGDK