I
have had to come back again to the subject of our Upper Lake that seems like is
being killed by the government and its custodian the municipal corporation. A
report that appeared in an English language local newspaper talked of how the
municipality’s Upper Lake-centric recreational projects are going to prove to
be harmful for it.
Subhash
Pande, a green activist has expressed concern about various initiatives of the Municipal
Corporation in and around the lake that in no way are going to improve the
quality of its waters or enhance its life. The Corporation is mostly trying to
provide more means of entertainment and relaxation to attract greater numbers
of visitors to the Lake side. In fact, if one looks at the plans it would seem
that left to the Corporation the Lake would have a ring of places providing
entertainment around it. From boating, to food parks, musical fountains and
several view-points, all are being planned or are under execution. As it is the
Lake has to bear the burden of thousands of visitors every day who assemble at
the Boat Club to the detriment of its waters.
While
the green activist has dealt with the denial of the authorities to make public
the report of the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology of Ahmedabad
containing proposals for “wise use” of the wetland, creating again an access
for a view point from the VIP road for a view point that was once given up for
environmental reasons and the retaining wall that was being raised and was not
demolished despite the orders of the chief minister there are other concerns
that have somehow been missed.
A
mention needs to be made of a news report regarding a multi-crore project of
installation of musical fountains and organizing a laser show not far from the
Boat Club. An e-tender was issued for
the purpose almost a year back after the laser show at Neelam Park on the Lower
Lake had to be discontinued for want of audiences. It was reported that the laser
show was making a loss of around six lakhs per annum - not a very big amount,
but an enormous waste of financial, material and human resources for creation
of the necessary infrastructure for the ill-conceived laser show had already
been incurred. An auditorium was built for the purpose which is now lying
unused. When the show was not attracting crowds the Corporation officials had
remarked that the site for the show was not properly chosen. Had it been
located somewhere on the Upper Lake it would have drawn crowds of spectators.
They just didn’t realize that a heavy daily dose of shows of whether of laser
or dancing fountains wouldn’t attract crowds for long on a daily basis.
That
very idea is probably being taken forward and hence the e-tender. A news item
today mentioned a new auditorium for 600 people is likely to be built somewhere
near the Boat Club for projection of history of Bhopal on a wall of water
created on the Lake with the help of a hundred-odd nozzles.
The
Corporation seems to have a never-say-die attitude and all the time works on
peripheral issues instead of the fundamental ones. In its efforts to please the
people by making provision of such means of entertainment instead of trying to
do the basic work of providing to them clean, unpolluted drinking water from
the Lake. Crores of rupees have been sunk in this kind of effort but it is not concerned
about sewage draining into the lake from as many as nine drains without the
intervention of treatment plants.
Apparently,
there is nobody to check all the ill-conceived projects and profligacy of the
Municipal Corporation. Environmental authorities including the Pollution Control
Board are mute witnesses to the excesses of the Corporation on the Upper Lake
particularly when the Lake is not in a healthy state. And, what the Corporation
is doing is to further damage an unhealthy Lake. Experts who used to come to attend
workshops in EPCO around ten years ago used to say that collection of large numbers
of people on the banks of the Lake was injurious to it. But the Corporation, in
collaboration with the local tourism outfit, tried to do just that and that too
successfully. Today the situation is so alarming that reports say that parking
of vehicles is causing problems at the Boat Club. People in such large numbers
come to the Boat Club which is precisely the place where such large numbers of
cars are not supposed to be.
In
fact, in a similar situation in a western country the authorities there would
not have allowed construction of a road like the VIP road that we have or a
highway along the lake. According to their environmentalists, even automobile
traffic at close proximity to a body of water is harmful for its waters. Here,
of course, the VIP Road was a dire need with fast-developing congestion on the conventional
road from the airport and once it was built it became a fait accompli – nothing
could be done about it regardless of the heavy traffic that plies on it.
Pande
has rightly said that the need to address the internal condition of the Lake is
urgent. Its waters continue to be polluted by sewage flowing into it despite
the orders of the local bench of the National Green Tribunal. Besides the
catchments of the Lake have to be taken care of to ensure that farms therein
engage in organic farming and constructions there also are kept to the minimum.
Likewise, the beds of its feeder streams have to be kept clear of
encroachments. All these essential activities are neglected and, strangely,
projects are consistently drafted for works that are harmful for the Lake.
The
Municipal Corporation seems to have gone insane; there does not seem to be no
other word for it.
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