The
Madras High Court today refused to entertain a plea by retail outlets
at T Nagar which were sealed recently for violating building norms,
saying that they could not be allowed to open their doors.
Rejecting the request by the shops, which include some popular retail chains, the Court today posted the case to 20 December for further hearing. |
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Only
recently the High Court-appointed monitoring committee constituted a
three-member sub-committee to closely monitor the progress of
enforcement action pertaining to the buildings shortlisted in T Nagar.
The sub-committee would critically examine interdepartmental coordination issues and suggest measures to overcome them. The monitoring committee also directed the Fire and Rescue Services to submit a copy of the report on fire safety survey carried out in T Nagar. This would be brought to the notice of the Madras High Court, the committee decided at its meeting. Taking cognizance of the reports about loss of employment of workers in T Nagar due to the enforcement action and expressing sympathy with them, the monitoring committee said that the potential for fire hazard and threat to human life is very high. It observed that both the CMDA and Chennai Corporation should take disciplinary action against officers responsible for allowing the illegal buildings and those who failed to take enforcement action. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and the Chennai Corporation sealed 25 buildings in Ranganathan Street and Usman Road on 31 October, a day before the Madras High Court was to decide on initiating contempt proceedings against officials for failure to comply with earlier orders against unauthorised buildings. On 12 October, the High Court dubbed the status reports submitted by the chiefs of CMDA, Chennai Corporation , Metrowater and the Tamilnadu Electricity Board as 'eyewash' . The reports talked about the steps taken by the agencies to demolish unauthorised constructions in the city. While the CMDA and the Corporation authorities were planning to demolish the 'deviated' portions, the aggrieved shop-owners approached the Supreme Court, which restrained the officials from proceeding further till the hearing came up in the Madras High Court on 30 November (today). |