One of the bizarre cases of massive corruption mismanagement, and general loot ever handled by a court of law is that of so-called cleaning of the Dal Lake. LAWDA, the notorious agency that was entrusted with the responsibility of cleaning the Dal Lake managed to grab billions of rupees from funding agencies within and outside the country with zero return. Not only that, years of public interest litigation could not resolve the mystery of seepage of enormous monies nor could it identify the person or persons or agencies to whose doorsteps the onus of total failure of the project should have been brought.
The weeds grow today in greater profusion than what they would in normal course in the Dal. Garbage continues to get dumped and provide for quick growth of weed. Encroachment and land grabbing partly removed, still plays its destructive role of polluting and defiling the Dal. It is no more the picnic spot that it was not nor shall it ever be. The Divisional Bench of State High Court has conceded that tons of papers have accumulated while dealing with the case. Now, it has come out with the suggestion that the State Government partner with World Wildlife fund and global leaders to ensure sustainable water management so as to benefit the global environment. It has suggested to the Dal Monitoring Committee to consider and recommend to the Government as to whether non-profit trust can be formed like Dal Lake Fund. It can be given the task of restoration of the Dal. Fund for the said trust can be sourced from the Central as well as the State Governments from corporate who are willing to provide funds under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme. The suggestions of the Honorable Court are well placed and the Government should take the initiative of approaching the Corporate Sector for the Fund. However, we would have appreciated if the Court had demanded the account of income and expenditure from day one when the Dal cleaning project was launched decades ago. This would give a clear picture of the fate of funding provided in the past and the lessons to be drawn from it. Secondly, the Court does not suggest any precipitate action against those who continue with encroachment, polluting the waters, violating ecological and environmental rules and do other irregularities that only help in the defilement of the waters of the Dal. How can water bodies be preserved without people becoming part of the maintenance teams?
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