Chapter VIII SANITATION

Provision for removal of rubbish and filth.

Public notice ordering deposit of rubbish and filth by owner or occupier.

Removal of rubbish and filth accumulating in large quantities on premises.

Contract with owner or occupier for removal of rubbish and filth.

Provision for daily cleaning of streets and removal of rubbish and filth.

Right of property of corporation in things deposited in receptacles.

Directions as to removal of rubbish and filth.

Maintenance of establishment for removal of rubbish and filth.

Prohibition against accumulation of rubbish or filth on premises.

Contributions from persons having control over places of pilgrimage, etc.

Vesting of public streets and their appurtenances in corporation.

Maintenance and repair of streets.

Powers of authorities in regard to streets.

("Powers of commissioner to regulate access to land or building abutting public streets") Subject to such regulations as may be made by the council, commissioner may regulate, the means, the manner and extent of access to and the purpose of use of, any land or building which may abut on any public street.

("Power to dispose of permanently closed streets")

1. (1) When any public street is permanently closed under section 238, the corporation may dispose of the site or so much thereof as is no longer required making compensation to any person injured by such closing.
2. (2) In determining such compensation, allowance shall be made for any benefit accruing to the same premises or any adjacent premises belonging to the same owner from the construction or improvement of any other public street at or about the same time that the public street, on account of which the compensation is paid, is closed.

("Acquisition of lands and buildings for improvement of streets")

1. (1) The commissioner may, subject always to such sanction as may be required under Chapter III, acquire—
   • (a) any land required for the purpose of widening, opening, extending or otherwise improving any public street or of making any new public street, and the buildings, if any, standing upon such land;
   • (b) any land outside the proposed street alignment, with the buildings, if any, standing thereupon which the council may consider it expedient to acquire.
2. (2) Any land or building acquired under clause (b) of sub-section (1), may be sold, leased or otherwise disposed of after public advertisement, and any conveyance thereof may comprise such conditions as the standing committee may think fit.

("Power to prescribe building line and street alignment") The standing committee may—

("Restrictions on erection of or addition to buildings within street alignment or building line")

1. (1) ... within a street alignment, if such additions be added to the height and rest upon an existing building or wall upon the owner of the building executing an agreement binding himself and his successors in interest—
   • (a) not to claim compensation in the event of the commissioner at any time thereafter calling upon him or such successors to remove any building erected or added in pursuance of such permission or any portion thereof; and
   • (b) to pay the expenses of such removal: Provided that the commissioner shall, in every case in which he gives permission, report his reasons in writing to the standing committee.
2. (2) If the commissioner refuses to grant permission to erect or add to any building on the ground that the proposed site falls wholly or in part within a street alignment prescribed under section 242 and if such site or the portion thereof which falls within such alignment be not acquired on behalf of the corporation within three years after the date of such refusal, the corporation shall pay compensation to the owner of the site.
3. (3) No person shall erect or add to any building between a street alignment and a building line prescribed under section 242 except with the permission of the commissioner, who may when granting permission impose such conditions as the standing committee may lay down for such cases.

("Setting back projecting buildings or walls")

1. (1) When any building or part thereof abutting on a public street is within a street alignment prescribed under section 242, the commissioner may, whenever it is proposed—
   • (a) to rebuild such building or take it down to an extent exceeding one-half thereof above the ground level, such half to be measured in cubic metre; or
   • (b) to remove, reconstruct or make any addition to any portion of such building which is within street alignment; in any order which he issues concerning the rebuilding, alteration or repair of such building, require— building to be set back to the street alignment.
2. (2) If any building or part thereof within the street alignment falls down or is burnt down or is, whether by order of the commissioner or otherwise, taken down, the commissioner may forthwith take possession on behalf of the corporation of the portion of land within the street alignment thereof occupied by the said building and, if necessary, clear it.
3. (3) Land acquired under this section shall be deemed part of the public street and shall vest in the corporation.
4. (4) When any building is set back in pursuance of any requisition made under sub-section (1) or when commissioner takes possession of any land under sub-section (2), the corporation shall forthwith make compensation to the owner for any direct damage which he may sustain thereby. Explanation. — The expression "direct damage" as used in sub-section (4) with reference to land means the market value of the land taken and the depreciation, if any, in the ordinary market value of the rest of the land resulting from the area being reduced in size; but does not include damage due to the prospective loss of any particular use to which the owner may allege that he intended to put the land, although such use may be injuriously affected by the reduction of the size.

("Setting forward buildings to improve line of street") The commissioner may, upon such terms as he thinks fit, allow the frontage of a building to be set forward for the purpose of improving the line of a public street and may, with the sanction of the standing committee by notice require any building to be set forward in the case of reconstruction of a building. In the case of this section a wall separating any premises from a public street shall be deemed a building and it shall be deemed a sufficient compliance with requisition to set forward a building if he builds a wall of such material and description as the commissioner is satisfied with.

("Projected streets")

1. (1) The commissioner may, with the sanction of the standing committee, prepare schemes and plans for projected public streets showing the direction of such streets, the street alignment and building line on each side of them, their intended width and such other particulars as may be prescribed.
2. (2) The width of such streets shall not ordinarily be less than fifteen metres, or in areas covered by huts, nine metres.
3. (3) When any plan has been prepared under sub-section (1), the provisions of section 244 shall apply to all buildings, so far as they stand across the street alignment of the projected street.

("Temporary closure of streets") The commissioner may by an order temporarily close any street to traffic for repair, or in order to carry out any work connected with drainage, watersupply or lighting or any of the purposes specified in Schedule III:

Protection of appurtenances and materials of streets ("Protection of appurtenances and materials of streets")

Power of the corporation to recover expenses caused by extraordinary traffic ("Power of the corporation to recover expenses caused by extraordinary traffic") When by a certificate of an officer of the Works department of the corporation or of an Executive Engineer of the corporation it appears that having regard to the average expense of repairing streets in the neighbourhood, extraordinary expenses have been incurred by the corporation in repairing the street by damage caused by excessive weight passing along the street or extraordinary traffic thereon, the commissioner may recover from any person by or in consequence of whose order such weight or traffic has been conducted, the amount of such expenses as may be proved to the satisfaction of the commissioner to have been incurred by the corporation by the damage arising from such weight or traffic: Provided that any person against whom expenses may be recoverable under this section may enter into an agreement with the corporation for the payment of a composition in respect of such weight or traffic and thereupon the persons so paying shall not be subject to any proceedings under this section.

("Owner's obligation to make a street when disposing of lands as building sites")

1. (1) If the owner of any land utilizes, sells, leases or otherwise disposes of such land or any portion or portions of the same as sites for the construction of buildings, he shall, save in such cases as the site or sites may abut on an existing public or private street, lay-out and make a street or streets giving access to the site or sites and connecting with an existing public or private street.
2. (2) The provisions of section 251 shall apply to the laying out or making of any such street.
3. (3) Any owner shall receive a sum which is the estimated cost of lay-out and making, and that the owner is has also to pay ten per cent of the lay-out for the improvement in addition to the area provided for, and any owner contravenes any of the provisions, he shall be liable for prosecution.
4. (4) If the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2) are not complied with, the commissioner may, by notice, call upon the owner to lay-out and make a street or streets and in such land and in such manner and time as may be specified in the notice. If the street or streets are not laid out and made in accordance with the notice and within the time specified in the notice the commissioner may lay-out and make the street or streets and the expenses incurred shall be recovered from the landowner.
5. (5) The commissioner may in his discretion, issue the notice referred to in sub-section (3) or recover the expenses referred to in sub-section (4) to or from the owners of any buildings or lands abutting on the street or streets concerned, but any such owner shall be entitled to recover all reasonable expenses incurred by him or all expenses paid by him, as the case may be, from the defaulting owner referred to in sub-section (3).

("Making of new private streets")

1. (1) Any person intending to lay-out or make a new private street must send to the commissioner a written application with plans and sections showing the following particulars, namely:-
   • (a) the intended level, direction and width of the street;
   • (b) the street alignment and the building line;
   • (c) the arrangements to be made for the levelling, paving, metalling, flagging, channelling, sewering, draining, conserving and lighting the street;
   • (d) the extent of each site and its usage;
   • (e) the extent of open space around the site allowed;
   • (f) the extent of open space allowed for public purpose.
2. (2) The provisions of this Act and of any rules or by-laws made under it as to the level and width of public streets and the height of buildings abutting thereon shall apply also in the case of streets referred to in sub-section (1); and all the particulars referred to in that sub-section shall be subject to approval by the commissioner.
3. (3) Within sixty days after the receipt of any application under sub-section (1), the commissioner shall either sanction the making of the street on such conditions as he may think fit or disallow it, or ask for further information with respect to it.
4. (4) Such sanction may be refused—
   • (i) if the proposed street would conflict with any arrangements which have been made or which are in the opinion of the commissioner likely to be made, for carrying out any general scheme of street improvement, or
   • (ii) if the proposed street does not conform to the provisions of this Act, rules and by-laws referred to in sub-section (2), or
   • (iii) if the proposed street is not designed so as to connect at one end with a street which is already open.
5. (5) No person shall lay-out or make any new private street without or otherwise than in conformity with the orders of the commissioner. If further information is asked for, no steps shall be taken to layout or make the street until orders have been passed upon receipt of such information: Provided that the passing of such orders shall not in any case be delayed for more than sixty days after the commissioner has received all the information which he considers necessary to enable him to deal fully with the said application.

("Application of sections 242, 243 and 244 to private streets")

("Alteration or demolition of street made in breach of section 252")

1. (1) If any person lays out or makes any street referred to in section 251, without or otherwise than in conformity with the orders of the commissioner, the commissioner may, whether or not the offender be prosecuted under this Act, by notice—
   • (a) require the offender to show sufficient cause, by a written statement signed by him and sent to the commissioner on or before such day as may be specified in the notice, why such street should not be altered to the satisfaction of the commissioner or if such alteration be impracticable, why such street should not be demolished; or
   • (b) require the offender to appear before the commissioner, personally or by a duly authorised agent, at such time and place as may be specified in the notice to show cause as aforesaid.
2. (2) If the person on whom such notice is served fails to show sufficient cause to the satisfaction of the commissioner why such street should not be so altered or demolished, the commissioner may pass an order directing the alteration or demolition of such street.

("Power of commissioner to order work to be carried out or to carry it out himself in default")

("Power to declare private street as public street")

1. (1) If any street has been levelled, paved, metalled, flagged, channelled, sewered, drained, conserved and lighted under the provisions of section 254, such street shall, on the requisition of a majority of the owners referred to in sub-section (1) of that section, be declared as a public street.
2. (2) The Commissioner shall publish every declaration made under sub-section (1) in the Madurai District Gazette.

("Prohibition against obstructions in streets") No one shall build any wall or erect any fence or other obstruction or projection or make any encroachment in or over any street or any public place the control of which is vested in the corporation except as hereinafter provided.

Prohibition and regulation of doors, ground-floor windows and bars opening outwards.

Removal of encroachments.

Power to allow certain projections and erections.

Power of council to set up hoardings and levy fees.

Precautions during repair of streets.

Prohibition against removal of bars and lights.

Making holes and causing obstruction.

Licence for work on buildings likely to cause obstruction.

Clearing of debris of fallen houses, etc., by occupiers.

Naming or numbering of public streets and naming of municipal property, etc.

Numbering of buildings.