Can CM Siddhu Revive Bangalore Lakes?

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Agara Lake on the agenda of CM Siddharamaiah first city rounds was indeed a shot in the arm for the citizens who have been relentlessly campaigning to revive & save the Agara Lake for the last 6 months.

Earlier Mr Ugrappa Sr Congress Leader, a regular walker at Agara Lake have been supporting the citizens cause had initiated to meet the CM and submit a detailed memorandum. He also has requested the CM to consider a visit to Agara Lake and on 7^th Sept 2013 CM visited Agara Lake and got firsthand information on the condition of the lake along with severely senior government officials, local MP and MLA.

Mr Kupendra Reddy Congress Leader thanked the CM for making time to visit the lake and minced no words in conveying the urgent need to revive the lake both from an environmental point of view and from a public health prospective. He pointed out that the sewage water & un-cleared floating garbage has lead to a huge increase in dengue cases in the locality. He also mentioned that the funds has to be allocated at the earliest to speed up the restoration work, and if LDA is not able to act immediately then either BBMP or BDA should be involved to ensure Agara Lake is revived and saved. He also spoke about almost vanishing Parangi Palya/Somasundra Palya/Haralur Lake due to ramped encroachment and stressed on the need to do a re-survey of the lake and clear encroachments.

Mr Satish Reddy MLA of Bommanahalli, who had not shown any interest about the lake over the last few years, did make a request to the CM to allocate funds to revive the lake. He spoke about how the lakes are inter-connected and that it also flows to TN where it is used for agriculture purpose.

Mr Ugrappa stressed upon the need to revive the lake as it is a very large water body of ecologically importance. He also requested the CM to explore the possibility of handing over the lake to BDA or BBMP as LDA seems to lack manpower and technical capability to revive the lake. He drew the attention of the CM on the health hazard due to sewage inlet into the lake.

Mr Ananth Kumar MP of Bangalore South spoke in support of the revival of both Agara Lake and Parangi Palya/Somasundra Palya/Haralur Lake. He appreciated that the CM re-starting the city tours and requested him to make it a regular as it will enabling him to get more direct inputs from the citizens and resolve their concerns effectively. He also promised Rs 25 lac from MPLAD funds for the development of Agara Lake and asked ALPMS team to meet him sometime next week.

Mr Dayananda Reddy MLC drew the attention of the CM on the questions he had raised in the Legislative Council about Agara Lake. He updated the CM that ALPMS which is a citizen initiative has been meeting up with officially across departments and have been driving the cause to save and revive the lake. He spoke about the need to save the lung space and to maintain the ecological balance. Most importantly he brought to the notice of the CM that government has been asking citizens to implement RWH in their home but should not forget that lakes are a great source not only to harvest water but also recharge underground water tables. He mentioned that contaminated water that is getting into the lake will also contaminate the ground water in the long run if it is not addressed immediately.

Chief Minister took note of the memorandum submitted by the members of ALPMS and promised that he will call a meeting of all the concerned departments (LDA, BDA, BBMP, Forest, KPCB, BWSSB etc) and will do the needful at the earliest. He also expressed displeasure on the inaction so far and took a dig at the previous BJP government for not implementing the various reports on encroachments and protection of lakes and environment. He agreed that there is a need to protect the environment and water bodies and will do everything in his capacity to revive the lake. He also directed BBMP Commissioner to do a re-survey of Parangi Palya/SomasundraPalya/Haralur Lake and identify the encroachments.

For the citizens who have been waiting for some action on the Agara Lake, it was indeed reassuring as they could bring it to the notice of no less than a CM of the state. Members of ALPMS who spoke stand committed to keep up the pressure and also contribute to take up some of the critical repair works, and their priority is to get the rain water into the lake.

- Kavitha Reddy

Somasundara Palya - Haralukunte Lake

Pics of the Lake

The city of Bangalore once known for its lake and greenery is shedding that tag much faster than the growth of the city itself. Real estate greed over the last 15 years has witnessed in the death of many lake across the city. The environmental activists have been fighting somewhat a losing battle given the rate and level of encroachment and disruption of these wonderful water bodies in the city.

Lakes in the localities closer to rural Bangalore were one of the primary sources of water for the residents. The lake had a natural flow and connected a series of lakes and stored an excellent quality of rain water each rainy season brought in.

Somasundara Palya- Haralukunte Lake which is few kilometers away from Agara Lake is one such lake that is close to extinction. The lake that was spread over close to 17 acres just a few years ago has already lost about 3 acres to encroachments. The two fold encroachment of the lake bed and the catchment area by Karnataka Compost Factory and the local real estate dealers is out in open for everyone to see.

The modus operandi is very simple, since the lake is devoid of any fencing, truck loads of debris from various construction sites gets dumped around the lake eating into the lake area, piles and piles of un-segregated waste of the Govt run composite unit adds to the deteriorating surroundings. As lake surroundings get filled by the debris JCB’s are rented out to even out the area clearly shrinking the lake itself.

BDA has done very little rather nothing other than putting up a board asking people not to encroach, which is indeed a lame attempt to stop the illegal encroachment without any genuine  effort/plan to revive or save the lake. Land grabbing or encroachments do not happen without political patronage, which eventually gets regularize using political pressures and support. It will not be wrong to say that Somasundara Palya-Haralukunte Lake which almost looks like a sewage pond is heading in that direction.

Info gathered by Bala

As per the report submitted by the committee constituted by the Honorable High Court, 30 meters buffer zones around the lake in form of tree parks to ensure the buildings are not close to the lake was to be the norm. Neither the key suggestions of the Justice N K Patil committee have been considered nor has the report been implemented in totality since Feb 2011. 

The local elected representatives have shown little or no interest in even making an attempt to revive and restore this lake. Providing lung space, preserving water bodies that recharge the ground water and working towards creating an environmental friendly neighborhood seems to be least of their concern. This kind of apathy and indifference raise many serious questions on the motive or functioning of the representatives.

The questions that will need some answers are:

1. What action has been taken to stop encroachment and restrict buildings 30 meter from the lake?
2. Why was there no pressure put on BDA to fence the complete lake surroundings?
3. What action has been taken against the truck which dumps debris in broad day light?
4. What is the master plan to revive the lake and remove all illegal encroachments?

Some of the concerned residents in the area have been working toward bringing in much needed attention and create awareness on the need to save the lung space. Concrete jungle that already around the lake needs this water body to be rejuvenated and brought back to life, as neighborhood are not just about home it is also about environment.

- Kavitha Reddy

HSR Layout - Ward 174

Last three years have seen the roads of HSR Layout turning from bad to worse; few patch works here and there before the Assembly elections is all that the elected representatives have done in contrary to the claims they have made. Recently BBMP swung into action and sanctioned funds for filling of the pot holes, patch up the worsened road stretches and laying of asphalt on selected roads, not sure on what basis the selection was made. 

A ride on a two wheeler across HSR Layout will tell a different story, exposing all the false claims made by the elected representatives on filling of the pot holes and patch work of the critical stretches, some roads like the 31^st main and 24^th main of sector 1 stand totally ignored. 

Shoddy work and selective repair work are in full display once you ride through the inner roads of the layout. Each of the cross and main roads have at least 3 major potholes and about 5-6 smaller potholes. What is even more surprising is that the road works are ignored all through the summers and are taken up only during the monsoon only when the roads get worst and unbearable. What stops the authorities from taking up the pre-monsoon repair work?  

Added to the bad roads are the clogged storm water drains, un-cleaned vacant sites, constructing workers defecating in empty site, un-swept roads, un-checked street light that don’t even switch of manually and the door-to-door garbage collection agents who dumps all the segregated waste into one pile.

During the citizen interaction recently the Corporator spoke about building a world class stadium, setting up a dedicated cycling track and making HSR Layout garbage free but if the basic problems are not address all the tall promises will have no relevance or takers. 

It’s time the elected representatives who rarely go around the layout take some time out from their busy schedules and inspect all the roads and ask the relevant departments to take corrective. 

It’s criminal to spend public money on shoddy work and elected representative should be transparent and bring out details on the money spent on this shoddy road work and penalize contractor for bad quality work. 

- Kavitha Reddy 

Also published in Jagran City Plus, HSR Layout 6th Sept 2013

Independence Day

Signing the National Anthem with great pride at 6.40 am in the morning and watching the Flag-off of the 1^st edition of the HSR 10K Freedom Run took away all my tiredness. Organizing an event where over 315 participants ran 10K and 5K Run was fun and equally challenging.

Local politics played as the event day approached, the initially planned route was changed as two things happened one the BBMP did not complete the asphalting work on 27^th main and HSR Club refused to permit the usage of their parking areas and start and finish point due to political pressure. Mr Coroprator (even though his wife is the elected corporator he the corporator for all practical purposes) who is the Secretary of HSR Club forgot that I had invited his wife to inaugurate a Women’s Day event without any political prejudices and refused permission on some trivial grounds, even though the run had no political affiliation what so ever. I guess it’s the inferiority complex that played on his mind, bet the HSR Club members would not be against a landmark event such as the HSR 10K Freedom Run organized by an NGO Kaagaz Foundation.

Someone like me never let the political pressures to takeover my goal, it only made me more than determined to make it loud and clear to such low minded detractors that ‘where there is a will there is a way’, and nothing can deter an honest effort.

The HSR 10K Freedom Run witnessed an enthusiastic participation by both runners and the residents who came to cheer the runners at the start point and where there till the last runner touched the finish line. The Awards ceremony went off smoothly, the runners disbursed after having breakfast and collecting their certificates.

If waking-up at 2 am to ensure all the arrangements were made for the run was not enough at 9 am I realized that my day just got longer and had to rush to the Blood Donation Camp organized by my Mother’s Organization Mythri Mahila Koota. With a rushed hardly enough breakfast and no good sleep I was the 2^nd one in the line to donate blood. Blood donation for me is the best form of social service and Independence Day is the best occasion to show your fellow Indians that you are there in their hour of need.

Independence Day, Republic Day, Kannada Rajyotsava, Gandhi Jayanti should not be symbolic celebration, it should indeed be the day when every Indian does something different, something to express our gratitude to our great nation by helping its people or spreading awareness or fighting for a cause.

Life is unpredictable and I always believed that our busy life should not keep us away from our intent. Many times I meet people of my age and younger to me who want to contribute time for a social cause or do something that is closer to their heart but never can, because they or either making career or fighting ill-health.

Jai Hind 

- Kavitha Reddy