For some weeks now, the state of one of the city's most scenic water bodies, Ulsoor Lake, has been the cause of distress to those who live and work in its vicinity.
Early Tuesday, dozens of regular walkers and members of the Bharathinagar Residents' Welfare Association staged a demonstration to highlight its pitiable state.
The demonstrators, comprising people of all age groups, lined the banks of the lake and raised slogans against the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for failing to clean the water body. They complained that the stench, particularly from the idol immersion tank adjoining the lake, was so strong it made them sick and nauseous.
Sewage, effluents
N.S. Ravi, president of the Bharathinagar Residents' Welfare Association, said the BBMP has not cleaned the lake since the Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja earlier this year. Sewage and other effluents were also being let into the lake, which had become a dumping ground. Matters were so bad that the water surface is not even visible in several spots.
The former BBMP councillor Pradeep Kumar Reddy, who joined the protestors, pointed out that the Sankey Lake in Sadashivnagar was being cleaned regularly. “Why can't they do the same with the Ulsoor Lake? It is not just the question of this lake the whole of east Bangalore is being neglected by the authorities,” he alleged.
‘Where's the money'
He said that nearly Rs. 2 crore had been allocated for the cleaning and upkeep of Ulsoor Lake. “Where has all this money gone?” he sought to know.
