Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Act, 1978
No: 28 Dated: Jun, 14 1978
The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Act, 1978
Tamil Nadu Act 28 of 1978
An Act to provide for the constitution of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, for exclusively attending to the growing needs of, and for a planned development and appropriate regulation of water supply and sewerage services in the Chennai Metropolitan Area with particular reference to the protection of public health and for all matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Tamil Nadu in the Twenty-ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Act, 1978.
(2) It shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification, appoint; and different dates may be appointed for different areas and for different provisions of this Act.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) "authorised authority" in relation to any power to be exercised or function to be performed under any provision of this Act means any committee, director, officer or other employee of the Board to whom such power or function has been delegated under section 22;
(b) "Board" means the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board established under section 3;
(c) "director" means the director of the Board and includes its Chairman and Managing Director;
(d) "drain" includes a tunnel, pipe, ditch, gutter or channel or any cistern, flush-tank, septic tank, cess pool, or other device for carrying off or treating or disposing sewage, sullage, offensive matter, polluted water, waste water or subsoil water, and also includes any culvert, ventilator, shaft or pipe or other appliances or fittings connected with such drain, and any ejector, compressed air mains, sealed sewage mains and special machinery or apparatus for raising, collecting, expelling or removing sewage, sullage or offensive matter from any place; but does not include a rain or storm water drain or a water table constructed by the side of the road kerb or a chute leading from such water table to a side drain exclusively meant to drain away rain water on the road;
(e) "existing authority" includes-
(i) a local authority having jurisdiction over the Chennai Metropolitan Area or part thereof; and
(ii) the Government;
(f) "local authority" means-
(i) the Municipal Corporation of Chennai; or
(ii) a municipal council, constituted under the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920 (Tamil Nadu Act V of 1920) or a panchayat union council or a panchayat constituted under the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1958 (Tamil Nadu Act XXXV of 1958)2, or
(iii) a township committee constituted under the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920 (Tamil Nadu Act V of 1920) or the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1958 (Tamil Nadu Act XXXV of 1958) or under any other law for the time being in force, or
(iv) the Tamil Nadu State Housing Board constituted under section 3 of the Tamil Nadu State Housing Board Act, 1961 (Tamil Nadu Act 17 of 1961) (hereinafter referred to as the Tamil Nadu State Housing Board), or
(v) the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board constituted under section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board Act, 1970 (Tamil Nadu Act 4 of 1971) (hereinafter referred to as the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board), or
(vi) the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board established under section 34 of the Tamil Nadu Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1971 (Tamil Nadu Act 11 of 1971) (hereinafter referred to as the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board), or
(vii) the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority established under section 9-A of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 (Tamil Nadu Act 35 of 1972), (hereinafter referred to as the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority);
(g) "Government" means the State Government;
(h) "Chennai Metropolitan Area" means the Chennai Metropolitan Planning Area as defined in clause (23-a) of section 2 of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 (Tamil Nadu Act 35 of 1972);
(i) "notified date" in relation to any local authority means the date notified under sub-section (1) of section 26 in respect of that local authority;
(j) "property tax" means the property tax or the house tax, as the case may be, levied and collected by any local authority having jurisdiction over the Chennai Metropolitan Area or part thereof;
(k) "occupier" includes,-
(i) any person for the time being paying or liable to pay to the owner, the rent or any portion of the rent of land or building or part of the same in respect of which the word is used or damages on account of the occupation of such land, or building or part thereof; and
(ii) a rent free occupant;
(l) "owner" includes-
(a) the person for the time being receiving or entitled to receive, whether on his own account or as agent, trustee, guardian, manager or receiver or for any religious or charitable purpose, the rents or profits of the property in connection with which the word is used;
(b) the person for the time being in charge of the animal in connection with which the word is used;
(m) "prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made by the Board;
(n) "regulations" means regulations made under this Act;
(o) "sewage" means night-soil and other contents of water closets, latrines, privies, cesspools or drains, and polluted water from shafts, kitchens, bathrooms, stables, cattle sheds and other like places, and includes trade effluent;
(p) "sewer" means any device for carrying off sewage, sullage, offensive' matter, polluted water, waster water, or sub-soil water, and includes a drain;
(q) "sewerage" means a system of sewers for collection, treatment or disposal of sewage and includes sewerage works;
(r) "sewerage works" includes any sewer, channel, duct, collection or treatment or disposal units, pumping station, engine, mobile collecting unit, and other machinery and any adjacent land not being private property and any land, building or other things for collection or treatment or disposal of sewage;
(s) "trade effluent" includes any liquid gaseous or solid substance which is wholly or in part produced or discharged from any premises used for carrying on any trade or industry including agriculture and horticulture, but does not include domestic sewage;
(t) "Tribunal" means Tribunal constituted under section 70 and having jurisdiction;
(u) "water supply" means a system of providing water to, a community for meeting its requirement for drinking and other domestic uses, industrial, recreational and other public uses except for purposes of irrigation and generation of hydel power;
(v) "water works" includes any source of water supply like stream, lake, spring, river or canal, well, reservoir, cistern and tank, dug well, bore well, dug-cum-bore well, tube well, filter points and infiltration galleries, any channel, duct, whether covered or open, desalination plants, treatment units, sluice supply main, culvert, bridge, engine, water tank hydrants, stand-pipe or post, conduit and machinery and any adjacent land not being private property and any land, building or other things for supplying water or for protecting source of water supply or for treatment of water;
(w) "year" means the financial year.