Urban News

The Hindu 14.08.2009

Metrowater’s tax demand notices set aside

K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI: It is a settled proposition of law that when a statute prescribes to do a particular thing in a particular manner, the same should not be done in any other manner. The proposition is well recognised as held by the Supreme Court in a case, the Madras High Court has said.

Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar was passing a common order on writ petitions filed by the Madras Sanskrit College and S.S.V. Patasala, Mylapore, seeking to quash the orders of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board of 2000 intimating arrears of water tax.

The petitioner’s case was that the CMWSSB was supplying water to the institution and it was paying water and sewerage tax regularly till March 3, 1994. After the City Municipal Corporation Act was amended, all educational institutions were exempted from property tax. Accordingly, the petitioner was also exempted. The demand for water and sewerage tax was made based upon the annual value as determined by the Chennai Corporation in respect of property tax. From April 1, 1994, no property tax was payable. The institution stopped paying Metrowater and sewerage tax. The CMWSSB Act clearly stated that the board should determine the annual value for each year for assessing the water and sewerage tax. However, insofar as the petitioner was concerned, no such assessment was made by the Board.

Mr. Justice Vasanthakumar set aside the impugned demand notices as no assessment as required under Section 34 of the CMWSSB Act had been made by the Board for all these years while making the impugned demand. When the statute mandated the Board to assess the water and sewerage tax in a particular manner, it was not open to the Board to assess the tax on the basis of property tax assessed earlier by the Chennai Corporation. Section 35 of the Act permitted reliance on property tax assessment which was a stop gap arrangement and the same could not be continued for years together.

The Judge directed the Board to assess the tax as required under law and demand the same from the petitioner. On such assessment, the amount already paid could be given credit to and the arrears, if any, could be demanded from the institution.

The Hindu 14.08.2009

Industrial estate waterways yet to be spruced up

K. Lakshmi and Deepa H Ramakrishnan

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

CRYING FOR ATTENTION: The canal inside the Guindy Industrial Estate is in need of desilting.

CHENNAI: Although various government departments are gearing up for the northeast monsoon, stormwater drains and waterways passing through industrial estates in and around Chennai are yet to be spruced up.

The unit-holders fear that the impact of the monsoon will be similar to the one witnessed last year, owing to the lack of improvement works to arrest inundation.

Members of the Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association complained that two canals that carry rainwater from the estate and flow through Korattur and Mogappair had not been desilted. Though the stormwater drain network in the estate has been strengthened, it is not enough to prevent inundation, an industrialist said.

With the National Highways Authority of India, which is constructing an elevated corridor through the estate as part of the Chennai Bypass Project, taking time to provide stormwater drain in the area, the AIEMA members expect the 3rd Main Road, where work is under way, to be water-logged. Last year many units on lanes off the 3rd Main Road had to be closed till the water drained off. Nearly 30 per cent of the 1,500 units in the estate were affected during the last monsoon, he said.

The grievances of unit-holders in the Kodungaiyur and Perungudi industrial estates are also similar. Noor Saied, president of the Perungudi Industrial Estate Manufacturers’ Association, said, “if it rains as heavily as it did during the last northeast monsoon, the situation would be no different as stormwater drain network is yet to be provided along Rajiv Gandhi Salai by Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation. The water from the 6-lane IT corridor will flood the estate.” Last year, the estate remained under sheets of water for several days forcing many of the industrial units to close down, he said.

K. V. Kanakabaram, president, Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association, Guindy, said the estate gets rainwater from Alandur, Adambakkam and St.Thomas Mount besides surplus water from the Chembarambakkam lake. Several of the units that are not able to function as a result of inundation suffer huge production loss. Residents of the nearby Labourers Colony and Defence Colony also get affected.

An important water carrier, which runs through the estate and brings water from Alandur, has been reduced in size as it has not been desilted despite repeated representations, he said.

Entrepreneurs at the Thirumazhisai industrial estate hope that this year they will be in a position to manage flooding as the estate is set to be provided with an 8-km-long SWD network at a cost of Rs.6.5 crore by September-end. V. Venkatesh, Director of Auto Ancillary Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Company, said that following the widening of Poonamallee High Road, the level of the culvert that carried rainwater to the Chembarambakkam lake had been lowered. This may obstruct free flow of rainwater. Two ponds in the Thirumazhisai estate must also be desilted. Officials of the PWD and the Ambattur Municipality, however, say they plan to desilt canals under their purview before the onset of the monsoon.