Deccan Chronicle          30.12.2010

Civic body encroaches on Madipakkam Lake?

Tags: construction in catchment area, encroachment, Madipakkam Lake, sewage pumping station

Dec. 29: With complete disregard for a natural water
body, the Pallavaram municipality is constructing a sewage pumping
station allegedly within the Madipakkam lake catchment, despite stiff
opposition from residents in the area.

A pit is being dug up for the pumping station that will be
constructed at an estimated cost of around `17 crore less close to the
already ‘shrinking’ lake. State PWD (public works department)
officials, on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper that the lake,
earlier spread over an area of 100 acres, has shrunk to 40 per cent of
its original size with residential colonies coming up there.

Rampant encroachment by private parties and poor planning
by authorities has already reduced a major flood carrying channel of the
lake into a sewer, complained S. Rangarajan, chairman of Neer Exnora, a
unit of Exnora International, which fights for conservation of water
bodies in the state.

Explosives have been used to dig the pit near a busy
residential area in gross violation of the Indian Explosives Act, Mr
Rangarajan alleged adding the contractor executing the work neither puts
up warning signs nor alerts residents while detonating explosives to
dredge the rocky bed of the pit.

When asked about the alleged encroachment, Pallavaram
municipal commissioner Vijayakumar denied constructing the pumping
station in the lake catchment and said the work, which is part of the
underground drainage project in the municipal limit, was taken up after
obtaining prior permission from various government agencies. The Madras
High Court had earlier dismissed a petition challenging the construction
of the sewage pumping station, Mr Vijayakumar said.