Bharathiya Kisan Sangh asked to submit objections to bus stand
Special Correspondent
TIRUCHI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has instructed the Bharathiya Kisan Sangh to submit its objections to the Government within a month.
The district unit of the Sangh had filed a petition before the Bench opposing the proposal to establish the integrated bus stand at Devadhanam, close to the banks of the river Cauvery, off the Tiruchi-Chennai bypass road. It was opposing the move on the ground that the identified site was too close to the Cauvery and establishing the bus stand there would cause heavy pollution to the river.
The Bench, which had earlier granted an interim injunction, has directed the Sangh to submit its objections to the Secretary, Municipal Administration, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the Tiruchi Corporation within 30 days. The Department of Municipal Administration, the TNPCB and the Corporation have been directed to consider the objections and take a decision within 30 days from receiving the same, the Corporation Commissioner, B. Balachandran, has said.
The Corporation had proposed to establish the bus stand at Devadhanam, in an area of 57.20 acres, where some private lands are also to be acquired.
The short-listing of the site itself had been a prolonged process.
Panel formed
Though the Corporation had revived the plan on establishing the bus stand at Devadhanam, which was rejected by the previous AIADMK regime on the grounds that it was a flood prone area, the DMK government had constituted a panel of district officials to identify a suitable site.
After inspecting the short-listed sites at Devadhanam, Ariyamangalam (compost yard), Ramji Nagar, Kottapattu, and Panchapur, the panel, which included representatives from the TNPCB, had reportedly favoured the establishment of the bus stand at Devadhanam.
The Corporation Council, in March this year, adopted a resolution proposing the establishment of the bus stand at Devadhanam, brushing aside misgivings expressed by environmental activists and farmers’ organisations and the Opposition parties in the council.
The Sangh had subsequently taken the issue to the court.
The State Secretary of the BKS, P. Ayyakkannu, said that they were in the process of drafting their objections in detail and it would be submitted to the authorities shortly.
Printer friendly
page Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
