HC refuses to stop work on Ooty medical college

HC refuses to stop work on Ooty medical college

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  15.09.2020

The Madras high court on Monday refused to stay construction of a medical college hospital in Ooty over alleged environmental violations. The court, however, restrained the state from felling trees in the 300-acre land allotted for the hospital till further order.

A division bench of Justice M M Sundresh and Justice R Hemalatha also directed the state to ascertain whether the existing buildings of Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Company Limited in the said land can be used for hostel and other purposes instead of constructing new buildings.

The court passed the interim order on a PIL moved by advocate V Ramesh seeking direction to the state to utilise the land and buildings leased and owned by Hindustan Photo Films for establishing the government medical college hospital. Refusing to pass any positive order, the bench said the entire construction cannot be stalled as a hospital would require special building.

Representing the state, advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that the government medical college hospital was a long pending demand of Ooty residents and cannot be stalled. “Population is high in Ooty unlike Kodaikanal. Residents of the area have to travel to Coimbatore for medical emergencies,” he said.

To this, Ramesh said he is totally not against construction of a hospital for the area. “The land allotted for the project has been earmarked as grass land classification, which is the heart beat of Nilgiris biosphere. Establishing a college and hospital in the area would result in conversion of grass land to concrete jungle,” he added.