Sukhna Lake: HC asks states to deploy JCB machine,40 workers

In response,Advocate Onkar Singh Batalvi on Friday produced a letter written by the institute to Batalvi,counsel for the central government. The institute has submitted that “sincere efforts have been made to complete the study and most aspects of the scope of the study have been completed and recommendations for these aspects are being finalised”. However,the institute has stated,“The complete final recommendations will need about a month or so for finalization”.

A brain storming session on Sukhna Lake is also being organised by NIH,Roorkee jointly with the Department of Zoology at Panjab University on May 7 wherein various findings of the study as well as findings of other studies on Sukhna Lake carried by other organisations will be openly discussed among various experts.

Significantly,the institute has predicted that this summer,the lake will not suffer problems of water scarcity unless the monsoon is “extraordinarily delayed”. The letter reads “as per predictions made by NIH during the last month of February…the lake will not face any drying or water scarcity problem in the coming summer of 2013. As such,no immediate measures for arranging water for the lake for coming summer are needed,unless the monsoon is extraordinarily delayed by more than a month or so. However,in order to lower the capacity of the check dams,it has already been suggested that desilting of the check dams should not be done for a few years so that the inflow to the lake improves”.

The case has been adjourned to July. In July last year,the High Court had passed similar directions wherein the Court had directed Punjab and Haryana to deploy 100 men each to pave way for the water to reach the lake from the check dams in Kansal. The court had also directed them to provide two JCB machines each for the lake.