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| Auditorium for Laser show at the Lower Lake |
The Bhopal Municipal Corporation is, reportedly, out to commit another
atrocity on the Upper Lake. Its action, if it is eventually taken will be
nothing short of an idiotic act.
It seems the Corporation has been running a laser show at Neelam Park by
the side of the Lower Lake where musical fountains were installed in 2012. The
show is held twice a day. It has somehow failed to attract visitors and hence
the Corporation has proposed to shift it to the Boat Club at the Upper Lake.
The proposal is to do away with the tariff of Rs. 40/- per head currently
charged at the Neelam Park. This will be done to attract more spectators.
There are numerous objections which can be raised against the proposal.
The first one is the fundamental one. When the Corporation is unable to carry
out its legitimate functions to the satisfaction of the people why does it
waste its material and human resources in matters that are far removed from its
civic duties? The laser show and an auditorium for it are not what the people really
want. What they want are regular water supply, cleaning of the streets and
proper disposal of garbage etc. Before getting into the area of entertainment
it should ensure that it did its civic duties to the satisfaction of the
people.
The second objection is shifting the auditorium to the Boat Club. Why
should everything be concentrated at the Boat Club? It already has enough
number of visitors and many more of them would be detrimental to the waters of
the Lake. Various experts who had come during the days of Bhoj Wetland Project
had made it
clear that collection of large number of people at the Boat Club is
bad for its waters. The administration including the municipality never paid
heed to their advice and all kinds of festivals were organized on its banks inviting
huge crowds, creating mounds of garbage which eventually were pushed into the
Lake. Even “rahagiri” was organized at the Boat Club. Worse, having imposed a
ban on plying of motorized vehicles the municipality has not been able to enforce
it for the last 11 years. Its ban was ignored by the Tourism Corporation and
even the Chief Minister launched the floating restaurant thumbing his nose at
the municipal ban. The Tourism Corporation has hijacked the Lake for its own
benefit and runs motor boats and the floating restaurant the Sair Sapata and
what have you, the last ruining the bird life of the Lake.
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| A part of the laser show |
The third objection is that why the show should be made free of charge
at the Boat Club? Why not make it free where it is and instead of running it twice
a day let it be run on alternate days or twice a week? Probably people have
shown a resistance to an over-dose of laser shows and have decided to avoid it.
Without trying to assess the size of the audience in the event the tariff is
done away with and revising the frequency of the shows the auditorium should
not be shifted. The proposal is harebrained and should be given up.
If at all it is shifted from Neelam Park it should be moved to Shahpura
Lake and not to the Boat Club. The place already has large number of visitors;
it should not be burdened with more of them. The Corporation needs to be
reminded that we drink its water and the Lake needs to be kept pollution-free –
an objective that can never be achieved with thousands of people crowding on its
banks.
*Photos from internet
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