By: Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar: In a move to keep check on illegal constructions in and around Dal lake, the administration has directed the Lakes & Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) to install CCTVs with night vision cameras in the peripheries of the waterbody.
A record note of a meeting chaired by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir PK Pole on 19th of this month reveals that LAWDA was directed to install CCTVs with night vision cameras to completely check illegal constructions in the prohibited area around the lake.
The meeting was called by the authorities after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court directed the Vice-Chairman Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) to draw a complete scheme for the management and development of Dal as well as the area around it in co-association with various departments.
It is worthwhile to mention that there is a complete ban on any kind of construction in peripheries of the water body.
The Divisional Commissioner, according to the record note, also directed the Senior Superintendent of Police Srinagar to give full support to the enforcement wing of LAWDA .
In the last hearing, the HCÂ court emphasized that in line with its earlier orders, no construction activities in the Dal or its prohibited area should be permitted and steps would be taken for the removal of all the encroachments.
The world famous lake has shrunk to less than half its original size due to encroachments and illegal constructions.
The lake has shrunk from its original area of 22 square kilometers to about 10 square kilometers, according to an assessment by the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) in 2017.
The DCI assessment also found that intense pollution by untreated sewage and solid wastes that flow into the lake, encroachments of water channels and clogging has diminished the circulation and inflows into the lake, leading to extensive growth of the weed water hyacinth which has emerged as a health hazard.
