Bridge for Games eating up Neela lake,Vasant Kunj residents to protest today

The problem at hand: Neela Hauz,a lake the two Mother’s International School students see every day on their way to school,is being eaten away by the construction of a bridge for the Commonwealth Games.

The PWD says two piers of the bridge have to fall in the lake,and thus dumping construction waste in it is unavoidable. Though Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna has taken note and made the PWD put an unusual inclusion in the building contract — to dredge out waste from the lake as part of the contract — Vasant Kunj residents got another blow on Friday: a private tanker was caught stealing water from the lake.

Or what’s left of the the over hundred-year-old waterbody.

Enraged residents,who have filed a police complaint in the water theft case and even made a cellphone video of the illegal activity,will now hold a protest on Thursday to draw attention to the shrinking size of the lake. A PWD affidavit states in 1995,the lake,comprising two ponds,was 25,750 square metres in size.

Now,as per government documents,it is pegged at only 16,000 square metres.

“I saw Neela Hauz on my way to school each day — it was bigger,” Kaustubh says. “But it’s really small now. I feel more people should know about it.”

In a letter to the Lieutenant Governor,Vasant Kunj residents have said,“It is difficult to understand how such illegal pumping out of water and dumping of malba can take place without the knowledge of PWD officials and their contracting agencies. Please look into the matter.”

Jyoti Sharma,Vasant Kunj resident and president of FORCE,an NGO working on water-related issues,says,“The theme of the protest is ‘You Promised’. We want to remind the authorities of what they had promised for Neela Hauz.”

The government,meanwhile,assures that the lake will be restored. “Construction in the area wasn’t possible without some part of the lake being covered because construction materials were not able to reach the site,” Ranjan Mukherjee,Officer on Special Duty to the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) ,says. “Also,two pillars are to be made in the water. The L-G has taken an interest in this issue and has altered the building clause,exhorting PWD to dredge out all construction material.