Alleged Corruption In Construction & Desilting Of Storm Water Drains: Madras HC Dismisses Plea For Constituting SIT To Prevent Misuse Of Public Funds

A Division Bench of Justices T. Raja and D. Bharatha Chakravarty observed that the petitioner has not listed in the representation made to the Chief Secretary and Commissioner of Chennai Corporation about the places/ streets where there is water stagnation, and where the dengue disease emanates from. The court accordingly dismissed the petition for lack of merit.

"As a matter of fact, for the petitioner to proceed with the PIL, he should have given a detailed representation to the respondent authorities about the places where there is water stagnation so that the concerned authority could take further steps that are appropriate", observed the court about the PIL claimed to have been filed at the brink of a dengue epidemic outbreak.

The perusal of the representation dated 20^th November, 2021 does not indicate the streets that have been inundated, the court added while concluding that it will be unable to entertain the writ petition.

In the writ petition, Advocate A.P Suryaprakasam stated that the citizens have been living under the constant threat of Dengue and other communicable diseases owing to the wanton acts of respondent officials in managing the solid and other wastes including discarded motor vehicles accumulated on the streets. The petitioner in person further submitted that by virtue of the order of First Division Bench in WP No. 28865/ 2019 dated 2^nd August, 2021, the civic and municipal bodies should have undertaken continuous drives all over the State and in the Union Territory to prevent the accumulation of water for mosquitoes to breed therein.

"Prior to the rain, the respondent corporation including the former ministers of Tamilnadu claimed that they made the Chennai city flood free, stating that they have constructed more than 980 kilometres length stormwater drains in Chennai city to drain rainwater in no time, and said that they have spent more than seven thousand crores in constructing drains and desilting of waterways but all those claims were proved hollow, when more than five hundred streets of Chennai city alone were under three feet water", it is stated in the petition.

Similarly, in V.B.R Menon v. State of Tamil Nadu (2019), the Madras High Court directed to constitute a Special Wing in the Public Works Department headed by the Chief Secretary and further directed the first respondent to file periodical reports to the Government as well as to the Register of the Court for preventing floods in Chennai.

The petitioner also alleged that the desilted canals under Smart City Scheme flooded later due to the building debris that was dumped by the contractor of Smart City Project. He further contended that the large scale corruption in the execution of Smart City Project has worsened the situation with regards to storm drains and canals, along with wrong road laying policies.

Case Title: A.P. Suryaprakasam v. The Chief Secretary To Government Of Tamil Nadu & Anr

Case No: WP/26294/2021 (PIL)