The National Green Tribunal (NGT), Southern Bench, on
Thursday directed the Pallavaram Municipal Commissioner to appear before
it and explain why the civic body continues to dump waste in ‘Periya
Eri’ (lake) in spite of an interim order against it.

Following
an application from S.P. Surendranath Karthik, Madipakkam, the National
Green Tribunal, New Delhi, in September last, granted an interim
injunction restraining the municipality from dumping waste in the lake.

The
300 acres-lake, Pallavaram Periya Eri, 7.5 km away from the airport, is
a natural resource and the water available in the lake has been of
great use for the residents in the area and for migratory birds. The
water has been used by nearby villagers for drinking, domestic and other
purposes. The lake is the only source for charging and maintaining the
ground water for the Pallavaram and adjacent areas.

In
his application, Mr.Karthik had said that one of the major water
resources for the entire locality was facing problems such as dumping of
garbage, encroachment and discharge of effluents from factories in
Pallavaram area.

He also alleged that after the
construction of Thoraipakkam radial 200-ft road, the lake was split into
two parts. In the southern part of the lake, there was no water
available as it was filled with garbage. The municipality was solely
responsible for depletion of entire southern portion by dumping garbage
while water was left over in northern portion had become toxic and
inconsumable.

“The entire lake extending about 300
acres has shrunk by sheer act of the local body”, the applicant said.
Hence he sought the Tribunal to immediately stop illegal dumping at the
lake and other authorities.

While it was holding its
sitting in New Delhi, the NGT passed the interim order last September.
The later was transferred before NGT, Southern Bench, Chennai.

When
the matter was taken up by the Bench comprising judicial member Justice
M. Chockalingam and expert member R. Nagendran, the applicant’s counsel
Kousik Narain Sharma brought to the notice of the Tribunal that the
local body still continued to dump despite the interim order.

On
hearing his submission and counter filed by authorities, the Tribunal
took serious view of the matter and ordered the commissioner to appear
on next hearing and explain why its order is not obeyed.

The matter was posted for further hearing on February 26.