Sending a strong message across that it shall never allow diversion of wetlands for infrastructure projects and make Chennai city suffer once again due to flooding during the rainy season, the Madras High Court on Friday set aside the allotment of eight acres of Kazhuveli (backwaters) land to Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).
The first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy quashed a Government Order (G.O.) issued on May 16, 2014 transferring 3.23.80 hectares of Kazhuveli land at Karapakkam village in Sholingamallur Taluk for the construction of a campus for ISI, an institute of national importance.
Though ISI told the court that it had already spent ₹5 crore for filling the site with rubbish and another ₹8 crore for constructing a compound wall around it, the judges directed the State government officials to restore the low-lying land to its original state by removing all the debris that had been used for raising its height.
