Udaipur’s lakes of corruption

Five months have passed, but no disciplinary measures have been initiated. Where title deeds were signed and amounts receipted, no refunds were made. Believing the ultimate guardian of citizen rights is the judiciary, the JSS filed a PIL in the High Court. During May and June, four trips were made to the court by the JSS on the notified dates. The government pleader always sought “more time” to answer the complaint. Once even the judge was surprised to find the item missing from the Cause List.

However, all those involved had not reckoned that nature was more powerful than “law’s delay and the insolence of office.” In August, God’s mercy came in the form of a downpour. All the water bodies went back to their pre-drought demarcations, drowning the markings of colonies and the hopes of land developers to make a killing.

Nature may have greater embarrassment in store. Let me cite one example. Adjoining the expanding city, specifically the 14th sector of Hiran Magri, is Naila — long described as a lake. Colonisation as planned might have reaped Rs 10,000 crore or thereabouts. In preparation, road construction had started and a small dam flattened. After the press reports, the broken bund was hurriedly reconstructed. When the rains came and the water level reached only a height of one foot, the 100-year old dam held but the newly constructed wall leaked profusely at the foundation level. Although it meant walking unsteadily across a slippery footpath, I visited Naila. I could see frantic efforts underway to plug the leakages with sand bags. Heaven forbid, but should there be another downpour and the water level touch its previous recorded level, the recently constructed 30 feet wall might become a tumbling waterfall and parts of Hiran Magri colony waterlogged. The rains also exposed the encroachments that had come up along the Aarh river. Most of them had the approval of the Urban Improvement Trust. Along these low lying areas, huts were half-submerged and some pukka houses became islands.

Of course, we Udaipur inhabitants rejoice that the famous Lake Palace hotel is again surrounded by water. Photographs of the recent visit of Tony Blair testifies to that. This should boost our sagging tourism. In a good year, Udaipur earns Rs 1,500 crore — accounting for 70 per cent of its economy and providing employment to thousands. But Fateh Sagar, the most picturesque lake, is still empty because the ancient feeder canal from the Madar lake burst into gaping holes. The canal had not been maintained during the drought years and much of the water has flowed into the Aarh river.

Some big lessons can be gleaned from this small city experience. Unlike in Mumbai, there was nothing abnormal which pre-monsoon prophylactic action could not have prevented. We, the old Mewaris, are a long-suffering lot. I am told by a fellow Rajasthani that if half the instances of neglect and conspiracy which surface here had surfaced in Kota, Ganganagar or Shekhawati, thousands would have come on the streets.

Cross-border infiltration has been dramatically reduced through free polls, transparency and diplomacy in Kashmir, but violence and terrorism can be ignited internally by corrupt governance and public ennui and cynicism.

The writer is a former foreign secretary