Chennai, March 25 (BPNS)

As part of the ongoing project of removing and clearing encroachments from water tanks and ponds, the Tamil Nadu water resources department has said that it has cleared encroachments from 899 tanks of the total 1644 tanks in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, and Tiruvannamalai districts of the state in the past three months. The department in a statement on Friday said that the department will move ahead with further clearing of encroachments from all the tanks in these five districts.

The Water Resources department also said that to evict encroachments from water bodies, the state government has formed a steering committee at the state level as also at district and regional levels.

These committees, according to the water resources department were formed on February 8, 2022, through a government order. The order states that Water Resources Department (WRD) officials will be members of the committee which will meet once in every month to review completed works as also to review the future projects.

The water resource department officials however said that eviction has been slow due to political interference in some cases and in some other cases due to the intervention of the court.

The department is planning to establish nurseries on the recovered land parcels with the support of the state forest department. A senior official with the Tamil Nadu Water Resources department told IANS that discussions had taken place with senior forest officials and water resources department officials in this regard.

The department official also said that 8429 legal notices were served to the encroachers and asked them to immediately vacate the government land or stringent action would be taken against them.

It may be noted that the Tamil Nadu government after the recent floods has decided to  remove all encroachments from water bodies and to ensure a free flow of water.