Snehal Upadhyay-
A Madras High Court division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy was hearing a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) writ petition filed by S T Arumugam against the construction of a subway in Nagapattinam and has passed interim orders on this case.
Advocate P T Ramkumar who was representing the Railways said to the Court that the subway is almost complete and will be ready for use in a few days.
The counsel of petitioner V Karthikeyan contended that due to this construction work one more water body has been destroyed, already all over the state there have been many constructions of such a kind causing the disappearance of water bodies and occurrence of flood.
The counsel of the petitioner reported that even the 2015 flood was a result of flowing channels being impeded by arbitrary construction in this city
The Court remarked that the construction of subways is important, but the authorities should avoid these constructions on any waterbody only if it’s completely unavoidable only they should do so or else these constructions disturbs the water bodies nature which can’t be altered in any way.
“Even if you build a Taj Mahal on a waterbody, we will tear it down,” the Court further added.
The Court has ordered the railways as well as the state that within three weeks both of them should file their counter-affidavits.