IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS (Special Original Jurisdiction) (Under Article 226 of the Constitution) W.P.No.

of 2009

S.Nandakumar C/o.S.Rangasamy, No. 660/4, Perumal Koil Street, Kuthambakkam south, Poonamalle block, Thiruvallur District 602 107 Vs 1. The Secretary to the Government of TamilNadu, Department of Environment and Forest, Fort St.George, Chennai 600 009. 2. The Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, Department of Revenue, Fort St.George, Chennai 600 009. 3. The Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board, Represented by its Chairperson, 76, Anna Salai Chennai 600 032. 4. The Collector, Thiruvallur District 5. Executive Authority, Kuthambakkam Panchayat, Thiruvallur District 6. Union of India Represented by Secretary to Government Ministry of Environment and Forests 6th Floor, CGO Complex, Paryavaran Bhavan, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. 7. The Chief Engineer, Public Works Department, Thiruvallur District. 8. The Commissioner, Ambattur Municipality, Thiruvallur District. Page No: 1 No.of.corrns: 9. The Commissioner, Maduravayal Municipality, Thiruvallur District. 10. The Commissioner, Tiruverkadu Municipality, Thiruvallur District.

Petitioner

11. The Commissioner, Valasaravakkam Municipality Thiruvallur District. 12. The Commissioner, Poonmallee Municipality Thiruvallur District. 13. The Executive Officer, Porur Town Panchayat, Thiruvallur District. ts

Responden

AFFIDAVIT OF NANDAKUMAR I, S.Nandakumar, C/o.S.Rangasamy, aged about 28 years residing at No.660/4, Perumal Koil Street, Kuthambakkam south, Poonamalle block, Thiruvall ur District 602 107 temporarily come down to Chennai do hereby solemnly affirm a nd sincerely state as follows: 1. I am the petitioner herein and as such I am well acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case. 2. I am filing this writ petition in public interest challenging the dec ision of Respondents II,III and IV to locate an Integrated Solid Waste Managemen t Facility in Kuthambakkam Village, in an extent of 67 acres of grazing land sin ce the respondents have not obtained the mandatory consents and approvals under the Tamilnadu Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Pr evention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and have also not obtained the appr oval under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006 issued under the Environment Protection Act. Further the divesting of the grazing land vested wit h the Panchayat is in violation of s.134 (3) of the TamilNadu Panchayats Act, 19 94. 3. I state that I have completed my Masters degree in Computer Applicati on from the Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli. I worked as a Software Eng ineer for a period of 3 years in Chennai city. During my employment I started vo lunteering at a non governmental organization (NGO) called Makkal Sakthi Page No: 2 No.of.corrns: Iyakkam which works with the local communities and encourages community involveme nt in matters of governance and development. In May 2007 I became a full time wo rking committee member in the said organization. As I worked with the communitie s I was convinced that the appropriate development path for India is through its villages by strengthening local self government and empowering the people at th e village level. I took the initiative in preparing development plans for eight Panchayats in Virdhunagar District in coordination with Gandhi Gram Rural Univer sity, Dindugal. I was a member of the editorial board of a Tamil monthly magazin e called Nammal Mudiyum. I have written several articles on the importance of loca l government and grass roots democracy. During my work with several Panchayats I came across the Kuthambakkam Panchayat which was developed as a model Indian vi llage. This village consists of a cluster of seven hamlets and is situated 40 km from Chennai. It has a population of more than 5,300 people. By the sheer stren gth of community involvement and mobilization this village has attained self suf ficient in many aspects of development. Thatched houses have been replaced with proper housing based on model built with appropriate technologies and local reso urces. On the basis of the community initiative small scale industries were star ted and women in the village were encouraged to avail of the community resources to get employment. The schools in the villages were improved. The Village soon became a model village and gained reputation world over as a model to be emulate d. Teams across from the world came to visit this village to learn from its expe rience. Its experience now has been documented as a best practice experiment on

local self government for the benefit of other villages not only in India but ac ross the globe. 4. I state that I was inspired by this successful Gandhian experiment of strengthening the villages in India and decided that I would like to devote my full time to participate in experiments like in Kuthampakkam and work towards ex panding these processes to other villages. I therefore started volunteering on a full time basis in the Kuthambakkam Village. 5. I state that the Kuthambakkam Village consists of seven hamlets and a griculture is the main source of livelihood for the villages. Both landed and th e landless have livestock which is another main source of livelihood. In seven h amlets alone more than 1000 cattle are dependant on the 100 acres of grazing lan d in the Village. As per the accepted norm for every 100 cattle about 40 acres o f land is required. Thus even this 100 acres of grazing land falls short of the Page No: 3 No.of.corrns: requirement. Further out of the 1100 families in the village nearly 600 families are Dalits who are landless for more than 70 to 80 of these families the cattle they possess their only sources of livelihood. These families are dependant on t he common grazing lands for their sustenance. If these grazing lands are destroy ed they will be forced to sell their cattle and will be left with no economic su stenance. Out of this 100 acres of grazing land about 67 acres is now sought to be converted into a site or solid waste management which is nothing but a euphem ism for a site for garbage dumping. 6. I state that I reliably learn that the municipalities of Ambattur, Ma duravayal, Tiruverkadu, Valasaravakkam, Poonamallee and Porur Town Panchayat wer e looking for land for disposal of the municipal solid waste generated in their towns. They wanted adequate land for establishing common Integrated Solid Waste Management and sanitary land fill facility. Under these circumstances the Collec tor of Thiruvalluvar district identified the grazing land as a site for setting up the proposed common Solid Waste Management Facility for all these townships. I reliably learn that there was no formal communication of this decision to the Kuthampakkam Panchayat. However the residents of Kuthambakkam Panchayat came to know that the village grazing land situated in survey No.820/1C was identified a s a land for the purpose of setting up of Solid Waste Management Facility. The P anchayat passed several resolutions objecting to the conversion of their grazing land for different purpose as it would affect their livelihood. Thus resolution s dated 16.07.07, 13.08.07, 15.08.07, 12.04.08, 01.05.08, 18.11.08, 02.01.09, 26 .01.09 were passed recording objections to the setting up of the Solid Waste Man agement Facility as it was detrimental to the local village economy and health. I state that the Kuthambakkam Village is less than 500 mts from the Chembarabakk am lake. The Chembarabakkam lake is a fresh water lake and is one of the main so urces for supply of drinking water to the Chennai city. The entire Kuthampakkam and neighbouring area which consists of vast tracts of agricultural land is the main catchment area for the Chembarabakkam lake. The survey No.820/1C which has been identified for the proposed solid waste management facility is part of the catchment area for the Chembarapakkam lake. Locating a garbage dump or a Solid W aste Management Facility in the catchment area of a major fresh water source ref lects complete non application of mind on the part of the Authorities who have i dentified the site proposed site for the dump. Page No: 4 No.of.corrns: