Chennai: Former Mylapore DMK MLA Dha Velu on Tuesday moved Madras high court, seeking to quash the Tamil Nadu govt’s GO for constructing a new secretariat complex at Foreshore Estate (Pattinapakkam).Velu said the GO was arbitrary and that it suffered from non-application of mind and that the govt had not examined a single alternative site, conducted any topographic, land use, traffic, parking, street vending and landscape study, or obtained the recommendation of any competent authority.The plea moved as a PIL is likely to be taken up for hearing by the first bench headed by Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari this week.According to the petitioner, the same govt that insisted on a fresh technical feasibility study and on the protection of water bodies, agricultural land and livelihoods for dropping the airport project at Parandur proceeded, within a short span thereafter, to approve its own secretariat on a coastal site adjoining a turtle nesting beach and nine fishing villages without any such study.The Loop Road is at present the only direct route from the Beach Road towards Santhome on account of the Metro Rail diversion. It is a 60 ft four lane road already used for parking by the public visiting the beach, the restaurants and the fish market, the petitioner said.He added that this court has recorded that it is congested during the morning and evening peak hours. School children studying in the institutions near the proposed site use this road at hours that coincide with peak traffic, and the hospitals and health centers depend on the same road for ambulance access.
