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| Dal Lake will be cleaned in 2 yrs: Ramesh | | | Agencies
New Delhi, Jul 8: World famous Dal Lake situated in heart of hot spot of global tourists –the Srinagar in Kashmir valley will be cleaned up in two years at a cost of Rs 300 crore, Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh today informed Lok Sabha.
Expressing concern over the fate of what he described as once Asia's second largest fresh water lake of Wullar, also in the valley, he said the Centre has received a proposal from the state government to revive it at a cost of Rs 360 crore.
The once vibrant Wullar has now ceased to exist and been reduced to a "green patch fit only for playing lawn tennis and cricket", the Minister said in a reply to a question by Mr Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) who raised the issue of declining lakes in the country.
Former Environment Minister Maneka Gandhi(BJP) attributed increasing death of lakes to unchecked flow of sewage, sand and stones as also "deliberate filling up" to benefit realtors. She sought a law against flow of untreated sewage into lakes. Mr Jairam Ramesh said her suggestion to utilise NREGA funds to revive at least one lake in each district of the country could not be accepted as the money under the scheme is meant for use only in rural areas, whereas most lakes under threat are in urban and semi-urban areas. But he suggested the task of repairing, renovating and recharging drying water bodies could be taken up under the Water Resources Ministry's Rs 10,000 crore scheme in the 11th Plan of which Rs 2,750 crore is being given by the Centre.
The Minister assured her that he would look into the demand for revival of the lake at Ramnagar in her Aonla constitutency in Uttar Pradesh if it indeed was historic as she claimed that it finds a mention in Mahabharata.
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