Excelsior Correspondent
MANSAR, Nov 21: The Committee on Environment, of Legislative Council met here under the chairmanship of Dr Syed Bashir Ahmad Veeri and took stock of the initiatives taken by various departments for saving environment and keeping up pristine glory of Mansar and Surinsar lakes.
Legislators, Showkat Ahmad Ganai, Syed Mohammad Rafiq Shah, Abdul Majeed Bhat, Sham Lal Baghat, Master Noor Hussain besides Chairman SPCB, Vinod Ranjan, Chief Wildlife Warden, A. K. Singh, Director Environment and Remote Sensing, Suresh Chug, Director Tourism, Soujanya Sharma, Director Fisheries, R. K. Dogra, Adl Secretary Legislative Council, Muhammad Maqbool CEO, Mansar and Surinsar Development Authority, Ashok Pandita and senior officers were present on the occasion.
The Committee reviewed the issues of damaging ecology in and around these twin lakes and asked officers of line departments to take corrective measures so that glory of these water bodies is restored and maintained.
Dr Veeri said that both the lakes carry equal importance from religious as well as tourist point of view and directed the officers to take help from religious leaders in saving these water bodies. He said “our main objective is to save environment in order to build up a pollution-free State” and urged upon the officers to play their role for this noble cause.
Dr Syed Bashir said that despite paucity, the Government is allocating funds for saving environment, forests and wildlife and asked concerned authorities to utilize funds judiciously by way of prioritizing the works which need immediate attention.”Forests are our wealth,” he said, adding that “it must be our collective responsibility to save them along with their flora and fauna”. He asked the officers to organize awareness camps in the catchment areas of the twin lakes and sensitize people about the importance of lakes besides the initiatives taken at Government level for saving environment, water bodies, forests and wildlife.
The Committee said that the human interference is causing major damage to the natural resources and underlined need for checking this tendency. It said the sewage entering into lakes is posing a major threat to these water bodies and asked concerned officers to take necessary measures for stopping this. The officers were asked to evolve a joint strategy for conserving natural resources available in the area, including Mansar and Surinsar lakes besides involving local participation in this practice.
The SE R&B was asked to take care of the roads leading to these Lakes as the roads are primary need for development and promotion of tourism activities.
It was given out that Centre has approved a project of Rs. 6 crore for conservation of forests, wildlife and protection of environment against which Rs. 1.33 crore stands expended so far in the area. The Mansar Surinsar Development Authority has expended Rs. 2.25 crore during last financial year on different development works, it was told.
Earlier, the Committee inspected some stone crushers operating on Sidhra-Mansar road. The Committee said that only those stone crushers should be allowed to operate which are fulfilling the parameters fixed by the Government.
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