No planning permission application for development was entertained by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) in the land demarcated for the Pallikaranai swamp area, the authority said in its report. The Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority had declared the swamp area as a Ramsar site in July 2022, it added.
The report stated that CMDA has demarcated the Pallikaranai swamp area in the land use map, part of the second master plan (SMP) 2026 for Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA).
The planning permission issued to M/s Casa Grand Private Ltd by CMDA does not come within the swamp area/subject area, as notified in the 2nd master plan, but in the patta lands of the individuals located in the primary residential use zone of the SMP.
CMDA is in the process of preparing a Third Master Plan (TMP). “In the absence of the details of the survey numbers covered under the Ramsar site and the width of the influence zone around the Pallikaranai swamp, along with the guidelines for permitting developments, CMDA will not be in a position to effect any changes in the Master Plan. Any modification or alteration to the Master Plan can be made as per section 32 of the Tamil Nadu Town & Country Planning Act, after the approval from the government,” the report added.
Further, the CMDA is preparing a TMP for the Chennai Metropolitan Area (2027-2046) and action will be taken to incorporate appropriate guidelines and influence zone around the Pallikaranai swamp area, in consultation with the Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority.
The application petrained to a suo motu matter taken up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), based on a news item published in The New Indian Express daily’s Chennai edition dated June 30, 2023, under the headline Road being laid inside marsh land in Perumbakkam.
The NGT on January 24, 2024, had asked CMDA to submit information, among other things, on whether the master plan had declared the Perumbakkam village as a “primary residential zone” when the site was declared as a Ramsar wetland in July 2022 and whether the CMDA has taken cognizance of the fact and made any change in the master plan with regard to the wetlands in and around the city of Chennai.
Retaining walls were not built during the construction of the Handwara-Bangus road in Jammu & Kashmir, especially at vulnerable places. Soil erosion has resulted due to the absence of protective measures. Protection walls have been raised at places where culverts have been constructed. Besides, no muck dumping sites have been established, except at one point where muck was found thrown on the left of the road on the down slopes.
These were some of the points mentioned in the compliance report by the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Committee dated June 12, 2024, in compliance to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order of March 13, 2024, in the matter between Rasikh Rasool Bhat Vs Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir & Others.
The matter related to the construction of Handwara-Bangus road, a tourist corridor to Bangus. The latter is a designated tourist site of Jammu and Kashmir.