Bengaluru: A group of concerned citizens and NGO's have come together to launch a campaign called One Bengaluru for Lakes (OBL). One of their major concerns is to constitute a single authority to look after lake rejuvenation. In a matter of six months, by March next year, the team will present a petition to the Chief Minister to fulfill all their demands and bring back the lake city in all its pristine freshness.
Arbind Kumar Gupta from OBL says, "We also want an adequate budget for lakes and a mechanism to handle lake-related issues. We want to halt the dumping of debris and we want removal of encroachments. We also want the storm water network, free of sewage, to be used for lake inter-connectivity and last but not least, include citizens in lake rejuvenation --- planning and execution."
The campaign is supported by well-known names --- cricketer Anil Kumble, theatre personality Arundhati Nag, former Olympian Ashwini Nachappa, and Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Gowda. Organizations that are part of the campaign include Citizens' Action Forum, Bhoomi Network, BPAC, Agara Lake Protection and Management Society, Arakere Neighborhood Improvement Trust, Belandur Forum, BIOME Trust, Friends of Lakes, Greenpeace X, Namma Bengaluru Foundation and others.
OBL has set out three agendas. First, to create awareness through outreach programmes in schools, colleges, offices and to garner support for their demands. Second, to continuously organize seminars where experts and government officials will discuss key issues and identify effective solutions that are acceptable to the majority of participants. Last, the team will also work with various lake teams for collecting ground level data on the status of lakes and related documentations like survey and reports. At present, they have already collected data for about 80-90 lakes.
The first phase of the campaign will go on for a period of six months. "Through the awareness campaign, we will try to put pressure on the government to fulfill our demands. We will also put out a proposed action plan for the government for short-term, medium-term and long-term measures. In three weeks, we will submit a memorandum with the proposed action plan. Then we will meet various government agencies like BDA, BBMP, LDA, try to understand their issues and the ground reality so that we can have a moderate approach.
