Bengaluru, July 1, 2018: The lakes of Bangalore should be revived and rejuvenated to their past glory as they existed a century ago, Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers, Parliamentary affairs Ananth Kumar said here on Sunday.
Speaking at a 131st “Hasiru Bhanuvara” (Green Sunday) organised by Adamya Chetana near the lake bed of Kempambudhi lake in Basavanagudi, he narrated the glory of Bengaluru lakes and regretted the state they were in today. Earlier the state of Kempambhudhi lake was very bad, it used to bring tears in the eyes. The lake built by Bangalore’s founder Kempagowda was in such a condition. The initiatives of rejuvenation of hundreds of lakes of bengaluru, are yielding some good results.
” Based on the assurance of Deputy Chief Minister who is in charge of the Bengaluru city development, we have to undertake rejuvenation and proper development of lakes in bengaluru. the lakes should be free from the encroachment” he added. He suggested that the environment surrounding the lake a century ago including fish in the lake, migratory birds, trees and plants and greenery should be revived.
Last Century it was encroachment around lakes. That should be evacuated and the past glory should be brought back. This should be the aim and to achieve this bureaucrats, politicians and the citizens should work jointly. This century we should be freeing them from encroachments, and the restoration & rejuvenation should happen he added.
He appealed to United Way of Bengaluru, an NGO engaged in lake revival campaign, “Wake the lake” to do research on the lakes and develop them accordingly. ‘The work of developing the lake in Bengaluru, known as the City of Lakes, should not be entrusted to contractors who think that putting cement and concrete around the lake constitutes lake development and forget the real development of lakes. A watchful eye should be kept on such contractors,” he further added.
Modern landscape designers and architects think that putting concrete around the lake and a few fountains in the middle amounts to lake development. Real lake development means live & breathing lakes with clean fresh water with living creatures, animals and birds and greenery all around it for the benefit of present and future generation, he said.
Adamya Chetana Chair Person Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, Environmentalist Yallappa Reddy, BBMP Corporator Katte Sathya, Ramesh B N, Actress Shruthi, Ex BBMP Corporator Sadashiv, MLA Uday Garudachar, Ravi Subramanya were present on the occasion.
