The Greater Chennai Corporation on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court about having sent a letter to the Coastal Zone Management Authority seeking permission for laying a footpath for morning walkers on the beach side of the Loop Road on Marina beach.
Appearing before a Division Bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and R. Suresh Kumar, Additional Advocate General S.R. Rajagopal said the Corporation had decided to lay the footpath on the entire stretch of the Loop Road commencing from Foreshore Estate to the Light House.
A letter seeking permission had also been addressed to the CZMA. After perusing the letter, the judges directed Central Government Senior Standing Counsel J. Madhanagopal Rao to obtain instructions from CZMA by January 22 on the status of the Corporation’s request.
The judges also directed the Corporation to file a detailed status report by that date on the steps taken by it to streamline the vendors on the beach and how it had decided to go about identifying the hawkers. The process for issuing identity cards and steel carts should also be explained.
Clean up
It was while hearing a case filed by Fishermen Care, a non-governmental organisation, that the judges had questioned the Corporation authorities for not maintaining the beach. They insisted on shifting the fishsellers on the Loop Road to a proper marketplace.
Accordingly, the Corporation identified a large piece of land for establishing the market but could not convince the fishsellers to shift there. Even as talks were under way, it had come up with the proposal to lay a footpath for morning walkers.
