Bhopal Notes :: 78 :: Determining limits of the Upper Lake

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Reports emanating from Bhopal are not very encouraging in so far marking of Full Tank Level (FTL) of the Upper Lake is concerned. This item of work has been assigned to the Municipal Corporation which is besides being incompetent is also corrupt. It has now said that the work of marking of FTL will take another month as it is short of the required manpower.

The ploy, it seems to me to be of the Municipal Corporation, is to delay the marking so as to enable the water to retreat from its full tank level allowing the thus vacated areas of the lake to be encroached upon. The Municipal Corporation cannot be trusted wit such a vital asset of the town. After all, it is the Municipal Corporation that made the Boat Club a food zone with numerous establishments – permanent and temporary – selling edibles which should have been a strict no, no on the bank of a water body that is a source of drinking water for lakhs of people in the town. It is here the Corporation encroached on the lake to create, much against the wishes of a large number of people including the member of the Bhopal Citizens’ Forum, an amphitheatre seating a few hundred people for the non-existent laser show. The show never took off as with scanty rainfall last year the fountains planted in the Lake bed got exposed because of receding waters. Some Rs. 7 crore were reported to be spent on it which were lost. Nobody has so far been held accountable for such indiscretions of the Corporation.

The Corporation was also playing soft on the much maligned retaining wall that continues to stand despite ordered to be demolished by the former chief minister. The Corporation was also hell bent on providing Boat Club 2 for Khanugaon as mentioned in the report of the CEPT that was suppressed by the previous government. For the shrinkage of the Lake if any organization is responsible it is none other than the Municipal Corporation.

This year Gods have been kind and they have given bountiful rains to the town so much so that the gates of the dams have had to be opened a number of times. This opportunity should in no case be lost to determine the Lake’s FTL and whatever has been illegally constructed within its limits should be ruthlessly demolished. Care needs to be taken that nothing in this regard is left to the Municipal Corporation which has mostly corrupt officials with vested interests. If one looks at it objectively, it is able to do nothing effectively, whether it is controlling the population of stray dogs or cattle or building and mending of roads or even supply of water to the people. What is more none in the Corporation seems to have any shame There has been so much of criticism of its ways in the newspapers and yet hardly makes any attempt to improve.

One fears that the rains will not be as copious in the coming years as they have been this year. Hence, this opportunity to determine the extent of the Upper Lake should not be lost. IF necessary use of drone-photography needs to be resorted to in order to overcome the alleged manpower shortage to identify the limits of the Lake