Tamil Nadu set bad precedent in grabbing water bodies

Chennai:  The government departments themselves set a bad precedent in grabbing water bodies and contributed to the menace of encroachments.

This information was revealed in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The report said the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachment Act, 2007, provided for survey of all tanks under water resources department to mark the boundaries. Considering the fact that 49 percent of the total objectionable encroachments were on water bodies and the threat posed by these encroachments, the state government banned (January 1987) regularization of these encroachments. Although survey by revenue authorities was the starting point for protecting the tanks under WRD, the achievement in surveying the tanks during the last 10 years, since notification of Act in 2007 was very poor, the report added.

 The report said the system envisaged in the Act to protect the tanks from encroachments did not help in protecting the tanks as WRD did not fix boundaries for all the water bodies through survey, which was the first step in prevention of encroachments and eviction of already existing encroachments. Audit observed that the property details, which included extent of land, usage, encroachment details etc., were compiled only by 4 zones out of the 15 zones in Greater Chennai Corporation as of May 2017, the report added. The report said to protect the water course lands such as channel and other catchment areas and to avoid encroachments on such lands, the government issued ban orders for regularization of such encroachments. Audit, however noticed cases of ineptness in addressing this issue.

Instances of encroachment by public buildings on water bodies highlight the self-defeating nature of the government in preventing encroachments by its own department, report added.