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“The state government has failed to take necessary action on the present drought condition in Karnataka. Instead of working towards measures to revive and rejuvenate the lakes, the government is looking to denotify and permanently wipe off the existence of 1,500 dry lakes across the state. The government’s focus must be to collaborate with pro-environmental agencies and resuscitate dying lakes. Instead of taking strict and timely action, the government seems to have given in to the pressure by the real estate lobby,” HDK said in the letter.
There are close to 25,000 lakes across the state which falls under the jurisdiction of various Zilla Panchayats. Out of these, the government has decided to denotify more than 1,500 dying lakes at the cabinet meeting held on April 19, 2017. The state cabinet also decided to amend Section 68 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act for the same reasons.
The proposal for denotification was forwarded by the Revenue department to the Finance department, Legal department, RDPR department, Department of Urban Development, Department of Minor Irrigation, Water Resources Department, Department of Forest Ecology and Environment. This proposal was cleared within the span of one week by all departments except for the RDPR department, he said.