After the Karnataka High Court issued a contempt notice on August 29,
the State Government has finally constituted a lake protection
committee for maintenance and development of water bodies in the city.
This three-member committee will be headed by the Commissioner of the
Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the Chief Executive Officer of
the Lake Development Authority and the Deputy Conservator of Forests,
Bangalore Urban district.

The purpose of this committee will be to
ensure wise usage, appropriate rehabilitation, protection and
conservation of lakes and their canal networks as well as  strict
compliance with the directives. The Committee has also been instructed
to hear any appeals on violation of the Court’s directives and issue
appropriate orders.

The committee has been constituted as per the
Karnataka High Court’s orders on April 11, 2012 on a public interest
litigation (PIL) filed by Environment Support Group (ESG), B. Krishna
Bhat and others, seeking directions to the State on the preservation of
lakes.

Leo F Saldanha, a full time coordinator at the Environment
Support Group, says, “I’m sure this will help the lakes in Bangalore.
Already, people have started filing complaints regarding lakes to the
committee. Now all the State government has to do, is make sure that
this concept works. If even now the committee doesn’t work, it will
clearly point to the pathetic state of governance in this city.”

According
to Saldanha, the main advantage of this panel is that now the people
need not rush to the High Court for registering a complaint. And if the
panel fails to give a ruling, an apex committee has also been put in
place to take care of matters.

This allows the High Court to deal with wider issues, rather than work with specific lake problems.

“The
real responsibility now actually lies with the people of Bangalore.
They can’t complain anymore and should finally take the onus onto
themselves. The public needs to use the committee and get the surveys
done of each and every lake in the city. And these surveys need to be
done on the basis of legitimate maps that were made in 1907 and 1915 and
not the bogus maps that are floating around these days. The surveys
should also include the rajkaluves (canals) and not just the lakes, as
it is the canals that ensure lakes are filled with water,” says
Saldanha.

In an effort to protect lakes, the Government of
Karnataka had set up the Lake Development Authority (LDA) mandating it
with the task of conserving them as they form a critical support system
for extending water security. However, weak regulations led to
widespread encroachment and pollution of lakes and this has resulted in a
variety of environmental and public health impacts.

To stem the
degradation of lakes across Karnataka, the Environment Support Group and
several other individuals filed a PIL in the High Court of Karnataka.
The Court responded by constituting a Committee under Justice N. K.
Patil, to provide a series of recommendations and guidelines to protect,
conserve, rehabilitate and wisely use lakes and their watersheds in the
Bangalore region.

Following this, the Court instructed the State
Government to immediately constitute District Level Lake Protection
Committees and an Apex Committee at the State level in consultation and
collaboration with the Karnataka Legal Services Authority.

However, action was initiated more than a year later, last week, after a contempt notice was served on the state government.