Hyderabad: A recent order of the Bombay High Court directing the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (BMC) to restore the 100-year-old Khajuria Lake which is a natural lake that was filled by the corporation and a municipal garden built over it, has given hope to the citizens of the state capital that the glory of hundreds of lakes in the city and its surroundings would be restored in the near future.
A division bench of Justice A.S. Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla of the Bombay High Court in August this year allowed a PIL challenging the action of the BMC and the Maharashtra government in allowing conversion of the lake into a park-cum-amphitheatre. The court observed that “it is clear that the state being a trustee on behalf of the people is enjoined to protect and preserve the natural resources which would include water bodies such as lakes and allow the public interrupted use thereof.”
The bench pointed out, “We find that in the present case the respondents have failed in their duty as trustee to protect and preserve the said lake for the benefit of the public who were entitled to uninterrupted use thereof. We find that the corporation has illegally constructed on the said lake by having it filled up.”
The bench said that, “We are of the view that the state could not have granted post facto sanction to such illegal construction carried out by the corporation. There has in fact been a breach of the post facto sanction granted by the state government which was for beautification of the said lake and not for the change of user of the subject plot.”
The bench also noted that “We find that the state government has failed to take action against those concerned for the illegal construction including having the subject plot transferred back to the state. It is thus, necessary in the circumstances of the case to invoke the public trust doctrine and protect the right of the people to the said lake by ordering its restoration.”
Mr. Rama Prasad a senior citizen and social activist of the city said that the serious intervention of the Hyderabad High Court has given a confidence to the people of restoration of the lakes which have turn sewage dumps and also filled with the concrete structures.
He said that bid land sharks illegally occupied the Several Lakes of the city by erasing the Full Tank Levels of Lakes.
He said that Hyderabad is once known as the city of lakes and now with the intervention of the High Court they are hoping that the present and future generations would again witness the glory of lakes of the state capital.
