Corporators tell BMC to clean Mumbai’s lakes
Lakes in the city are in decadent state and it’s the responsibility of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to maintain them properly. This was the unanimous opinion of several BMC legislators, voiced at a Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The issue cropped up when a proposal to acquire the Shantaram talao in Malad
was presented before the committee. Corporators Sunil Prabhu of the Shiv
Sena and Yogesh Sagar of BJP pointed out that the lake was a private
property. Five years ago, local corporators had demanded that BMC acquire
the lake and beautify it. The lake had been partially filled up by BMC’s
Gardens Department in a misguided attempt to reclaim the lake and develop a
garden in its place. But the civic body’s efforts were soon aborted as the
lake was surrounded by encroachments.
Prabhu alleged that a BMC’s stormwater drain emptied into it, further
polluting the already-dirty water. “If things go on like this, the lake will
become a puddle,” he said.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Manu Kumar Srivastava told the committee
that Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) had sought
BMC’s permission to beautify Shantaram lake. But the civic body’s
bureaucracy had sat on MHADA’s proposal, admitted Srivastava.
Standing Committee members pointed out if the BMC kept on stalling MHADA’s
proposal, the lake would be completely filled up and taken over by
encraochers.
The corporators also pointed out other instances of BMC’s apathy towards
Mumbai’s lakes. Congress corporator Waqarunnisa Ansari said that the
prominent lake on S V Road near Bandra railway station was in a dirty state.
“People throw garbage in it,” she told the committee.
Sena corporator Mangesh Satamkar said that Sion lake near the Sion Fort was
full of silt. Kandivli lake had a similar problem, informed fellow
corporator Shailaja Girkar.
Congress corporator Rajhans Singh told the Committee that BMC had neglected
Sheetal lake in Kurla, which it had acquired a few years ago after paying
TDR (Transfer of Development Rights) worth Rs 19 lakh. While the BMC had
laid a jogging track around the lake, it failed to clean the lake at regular
intervals and the water had turned murky, said Singh.
“Lakes should be cleaned before the onset of monsoons,” said Satamkar.
“Cleaning them before Ganeshotsav is not enough.”
Corporators across party lines demanded that the civic body set aside funds
in this year’s budget to beautify Mumbai’s lakes. Srivastava assured the
corporators that he would allocate funds for cleaning and beautifying lakes
in the annual budget. However, he didn’t clarify if BMC would acquire
private lakes in the city, contending that the civic body would concentrate
on sprucing up lakes presently under its control.
URL : http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=229984