S GANESAN Vs. DISTRICT COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has filed the above writ petition by way of Public Interest Litigation seeking to issue a Writ of Mandamus directing respondents 1 to 3 to forbear the fourth respondent from either drawing water in Survey Nos. 48/1b, 50/1a2 and 247 at Silambakkam Village, Uthiramerur Taluk, Kancheepuram District, to be supplied to their factory at Melpakkam Village or to discharge the waste/treated water into the lands at Survey Nos. 48/1b, 50/1a2 and 247 of Silambakkam Village, Uthiramerur Taluk, Kancheepuram District.

(2.) IT is the grievance of the petitioner that Silambakkam Village in Uthiramerur Taluk, Kancheepuram District, is a village wherein 100% of the lands are agricultural lands and agriculture is the only source of living for the entire village. There is no major river flowing in the nearby area. According to him, the fourth respondent herein is an iron and steel plant, situated at Melapakkam village. The said factory, which is a cast iron Melting Unit, was established in the year 2005 and it started its melting functioning in December, 2005 itself. The factory employs about 1000 employees. The fourth respondent-factory has purchased 5. 5 acres of land in Survey Nos. 48/1b, 50/1a2 and 247 of Silambakkam Village, Uthiramerur Taluk, Kancheepuram District and dug 250 feet tube-well, a month ago. They laid the pipelines at the distance of 6 k. ms. According to the petitioner, the fourth respondent factory was allowed to operate the bore-well, which they plan to operate with 50 HP motor pump set, then the ground water level in Silambakkam village will go down rapidly, thus causing difficulty to pursue the agricultural operations in about 300 acres of land, hence the present writ petition.

(3.) PURSUANT to the direction of this Court, the first respondent-District Collector, Kancheepuram District, has filed an Inspection Report. Since the information furnished by the District Collector are relevant to the issue, the entire report is extracted here under, which reads as follows: