The Hindu             30.01.2014

Evict encroachers from Anna Nagar Main Road: HC

The Madras High Court Bench here has directed Madurai Municipal Corporation Commissioner to decongest Anna Nagar eighty feet road in the city by evicting all unauthorised occupants from the roadsides.

A Division Bench comprising Justice R. Sudhakar and Justice V.M. Velumani passed the order in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by advocate A.S.M. Kumar alias S. Muthukumar way back in September 2012 with a plea to evict hawkers too. Filing an affidavit in support of the petition, the lawyer stated that a number of hotels, hospitals and other commercial buildings had cropped up on the eighty feet road in the last few years without in-house provision for parking vehicles of their customers.

A total of 107 commercial buildings had been constructed in the locality without proper approval and most of them had encroached upon the pavements on both sides of the road thereby virtually leaving no space for pedestrian movement, he claimed.

He also said that the pedestrians were forced to face the risk of being knocked down by speeding vehicles as they had to walk on the middle of the road surpassing vehicles parked on the roadsides. Public roads could not be used for the business interests of private individuals, he added.