Concerned over the five-year delay in the completion of the Avadi drinking water project, the Madras High Court has decided to monitor the scheme.
According to the petitioner N. Babu Ganesh, a resident of Avadi, the drinking water scheme was sanctioned to cater to about 55,000 households in the area under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at a cost of Rs. 103 crore.
A Government Order was passed sanctioning the project on January 22, 2008, and the work commenced on November 11, 2009.
The drinking water scheme was supposed to be completed in two years.
Since work was not yet complete, the petitioner approached the High Court through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea, seeking a direction to the Avadi Municipality to provide proper water supply and drainage connections to residents within a stipulated time.
When the plea came up for hearing before the First Bench of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan, the petitioner submitted that in 2011, the authorities made a public announcement claiming that about 77 percent of the work had been completed and gave an assurance that drinking water will be supplied to Avadi from Puzhal Lake shortly.
‘95% complete’
To this, the counsel for the Municipality submitted that 95 percent of the work was over and so far, 100 connections had been provided.
To a query made by the Bench as to how much time would be needed for all the connections to be issued, the counsel said, “The Municipality will issue 1,000 connections per month.”
The Bench noted that it failed to appreciate the submission for the reason that if 1,000 connections were provided per month, it would take another 18 months to provide connections to the over 18,000 pending applicants.
“We, thus, call upon the Municipality to devise a methodology to ensure that these connections are given quickly and submit a compliance report,” it said.
The Bench added that it would also monitor the issue for some time to ensure that there is no further delay and disposed of the PIL.
According to the petitioner N. Babu Ganesh, a resident of Avadi, the drinking water scheme was sanctioned to cater to about 55,000 households in the area under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at a cost of Rs. 103 crore.
A Government Order was passed sanctioning the project on January 22, 2008, and the work commenced on November 11, 2009.
The drinking water scheme was supposed to be completed in two years.
Since work was not yet complete, the petitioner approached the High Court through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea, seeking a direction to the Avadi Municipality to provide proper water supply and drainage connections to residents within a stipulated time.
When the plea came up for hearing before the First Bench of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan, the petitioner submitted that in 2011, the authorities made a public announcement claiming that about 77 percent of the work had been completed and gave an assurance that drinking water will be supplied to Avadi from Puzhal Lake shortly.
‘95% complete’
To this, the counsel for the Municipality submitted that 95 percent of the work was over and so far, 100 connections had been provided.
To a query made by the Bench as to how much time would be needed for all the connections to be issued, the counsel said, “The Municipality will issue 1,000 connections per month.”
The Bench noted that it failed to appreciate the submission for the reason that if 1,000 connections were provided per month, it would take another 18 months to provide connections to the over 18,000 pending applicants.
“We, thus, call upon the Municipality to devise a methodology to ensure that these connections are given quickly and submit a compliance report,” it said.
The Bench added that it would also monitor the issue for some time to ensure that there is no further delay and disposed of the PIL.