The Hindu: Bangalore: Wednesday, March 26, 2014.
Rs. 200 crore
spent on maintenance of lakes in Bangalore during the past six years
Over the last
six years, more than Rs. 200 crore from the State’s exchequer was spent on the
development of Bangalore’s water bodies that once kept the city cool and
verdant. But most funds have gone down the drain, in many cases quite literally
as lakes have either turned into pools of sewage or have been encroached.
The quality
of water in most lakes is categorised as “E”, which makes it only fit for
irrigation, industrial cooling and such other non-potable uses. Their storage
capacity too has not increased, reveals documents obtained under the Right to
Information Act (RTI Act) for 191 lakes in the city.
Based on a
complaint lodged by Wg. Cmdr. (Retd.) G.B. Athri, who procured the documents
under the RTI Act, the Upa Lokayakta has convened a meeting on April 12 to
discuss the water bodies. He has directed all agencies concerned to submit
details on encroachment of water bodies, funds spent on their development work
and the failure to control pollution of lakes.
And, acting
on the same complaint, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board issued notices
to Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) chairperson, Bruhat
Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and BDA commissioners, Deputy Commissioner
(Bangalore Urban), and Deputy Conservator of Forest (Bangalore Urban) as they
are responsible for the protection and maintenance of most lakes.
While
Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) maintains 123 lakes, BBMP maintains 59
lakes. Lake Development Authority (LDA) and Forest Department look after four
and five lakes, respectively.
The BDA has
spent about Rs.102 crore and BBMP has spent about Rs. 96.5 crore on maintenance
of lakes. LDA has spent more than Rs. 5 crore on development of lakes in the
past five years.
In the past
decade, (a year before the A.T. Ramaswamy-headed Joint Legislative Committee on
land encroachments was formed), both Bangalore Development Authority and BBMP
acknowledged that the lakes under their jurisdiction have been encroached.
“BBMP and BWSSB have been the main culprits in contaminating lakes since raw
sewage is let into the water bodies. Past efforts to protect lakes have gone in
vain,” said Wg. Cmdr. Athri.
He pointed
out that the Karnataka High Court’s order in 1995 says that lake area should
not be used for any other purpose, and another order in 2008 prohibited civic
agencies from letting of sewage flow into tanks.
He added that
despite High Court orders directing officials to protect lakes, encroachments
have been allowed.
Commenting on
the condition of the lakes in Bangalore, V. Balasubramanian, Chairperson of
Task force for Recovery of Lands said that the sudden developments seen in
Bangalore over the last 20 years have resulted in the destruction of lakes.
Sewage is being let into the lakes and land has been encroached upon.
The task
force had identified encroachments on 1,800 acres of 800 lakes in Bangalore.
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