The High Court of Karnataka on Friday directed the State government to clarify whether the 30 metre buffer zones to be maintained around the lakes are also being surveyed during the ongoing survey of lakes across the State.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S.Vishwajith Shetty issued the directions while noticing that the report submitted by the State government on the status of survey of lakes has no clarity on this aspect.
The government, in its statement, had told the court that 14,839 lakes have been surveyed in the State so far while pointing out that the Karnataka Public Land Corporation Ltd has collected comprehensive data of a total of 37,126 lakes spread over 30 districts.
The survey of lakes in the State are being conducted on the directions of the High Court while hearing a PIL petition related to maintenance of lakes and storm water drains.
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the government and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahaangara Palike to take steps to remove the 23 identified encroachments of Kaggadasapura lake and six encroachments of Beguru lake. The court also directed the BBMP to take a stand on the removal of an idol installed in the middle of an artificially created island in Beguru lake.
In case of Beguru and Kaggadasapura lakes, the Bench directed the government to conduct a resurvey while pointing out that survey sketch is not clear on whether buffer zones were surveyed or not.
