Deccan Chronicle          30.12.2010

Civic body encroaches on Madipakkam Lake?

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.