T.N. Government restructures panels for monitoring encroachments [10.01.2022]

Various committees that were constituted in the past would now be superseded by the three-level panel.

The Tamil Nadu Government on Tuesday constituted a State-level steering committee, and district-level and divisional-level monitoring committees for effective reporting and monitoring of development activities for identifying and evicting encroachments in waterbodies and other government lands. The three-level panels would supersede all existing committees, constituted at various points in time.

Hitherto, several committees in taluk-level, divisional, district and State-level were in place to protect government lands from encroachments in compliance with the orders of the courts that monitor the action taken for eviction of such encroachments. “A single point reporting or monitoring system is necessary at each level for effective initiatives towards protection,” a G.O. issued in this regard said.

The Chief Secretary is the ex-officio chairperson of the State-level steering committee. Ex-officio members in the panel are Secretaries of Revenue & Disaster Management, Municipal Administration and Water Supply, Water Resources, Highways & Minor Ports, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Home, Prohibition and Excise and Housing and Urban Development Departments, Director-General of Police.

Director of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation, Director of Municipal Administration, Engineer-in-Chief of the Water Resources Department, Director-General-Highways, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board, Director of Survey and Settlement are the other members of the panel. Commissioner of Land Administration would be the convenor of the State-level committee.

The State-level committee shall monitor and review the overall progress in the eviction of encroachments and compliance of court orders with respect to waterbodies and other highly objectionable porambokes. The committee would convene once a month and issues would be taken up for discussion along with the All Secretaries’ Meeting. Collectors and the Revenue Divisional Officers would be the chairperson of the district-level and division-level committees. “In the meantime, Taluk Tahsildar and other field officers of the line departments concerned (like WRD, Highways etc), should initiate eviction process after identifying encroachments in objectionable government lands. The relevant Acts and the processes prescribed under these Acts should be followed while evicting ,” it said. At least on five instances, committees were constituted in the past, over identifying and evicting encroachments in waterbodies and other government lands. Three redressal committees –Taluk Committee, Divisional-level Appellate Committee and District-level review committee were constituted in line with the orders of the Madras High Court in 2014. In the light of the observations made by Madras High Court of Madras, a G.O. was amended to include officials of Water Resources and PWD. In 2021, the Collectors were instructed to formulate a local team with concerned Assistant Engineer/Assistant Executive Engineer, Village Administrative Officer (VAO), Panchayat President, local NGOs and SHG members. The three-level committee constituted on February 8 would supersede all these committees.