HC dismisses PIL to link Tamil Nadu water bodies with rivers

CHENNAI: The Madras high court has dismissed a PIL seeking to interlink water bodies with rivers across the state to prevent draining of flood water into sea, as the plea turned out to be a disguise to push crop loan waiver in the state.
“The prayer sought for cannot be granted and it is to be noted that the writ petition seems to be targeted towards waiving crop loans. Certain paragraphs show that there is some organisation which is working behind the petitioner and the petitioner is not bona fide.However, keeping in mind the facts that the petitioner has appeared in person, we are not inclined to impose any cost. The writ petition stands dismissed,” a division bench of Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad said.
The petitioner, K K Ramesh, wanted the court to direct the state government to allot more funds to meet expenses to formulate an expert committee to interlink all the tanks, ponds and water bodies with all rivers in Tamil Nadu to prevent flood water from draining into the sea.
He also wanted the authorities to construct more checkdams across the state, to remove all encroachments from water bodies and to punish government officials who supported the encroachers.
When the plea came up for hearing, the bench said: “Though the prayer is one for constituting an expert committee to interlink all water bodies with rivers the writ petition primarily is on the failure of monsoons, lesser yield of agriculture and consequently waiving of agricultural loans.”
Listing out the paragraphs that batted for loan waiver from the government, the bench said the paragraphs would show that the writ petition is actually a bogey and the real intention is to get the crop loan waived by the state. Such tactics cannot be appreciated, the bench added and dismissed the plea.