The Madras High Court on Monday converted a letter written to its Chief Justice into a suo motu public interest litigation petition and called for a report from the Kancheepuram Collector on steps taken by him so far to evict the encroachers in the water flow area of Adyar river flowing through Varadarajapuram.
Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar also directed Government Pleader (in-charge) T.N. Rajagopalan to obtain necessary instructions after they were told that 186 encroachers had already been identified and that a single judge of the High Court had disposed of eight of 17 writ petitions filed by them.
In the letter written to the Chief Justice on behalf of the residents of Varadarajapuram, it was pointed out that the government had failed to implement a G.O., issued by the Public Works Department on October 17, 2016, for de-silting the river as well as widening and standardising its banks. It claimed that there were encroachments even on the riverbed.