Srinagar: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday was ‘pained’ over the pollution levels and quantity of weeds in Dal Lake, the flagship of Kashmir’s tourism.
The Chief Minister also announced that she would be herself monitoring the cleaning up of the lake periodically.
During a visit to the interiors of the lake, Mehbooba directed pacing up of conservation and de-weeding activities in the world famous lake. She personally took stock of the weeds, algal growth and pollution having cropped up over the years. She enquired about the various measures being taken for controlling the algal growth and dumping of the weed material.
Mehbooba Mufti was informed that the LAWDA has already intensified de-weeding efforts in the lake and at present 500 labourers have been pressed for the manual de-weeding. During the last two months, the Chief Minister was informed that nine lakh cubic metres of weeds have been removed from the lakh rendering a large area of waters as weed free.
The Chief Minister was informed that two studies at SKUAST-K have been commissioned for proper dumping and decomposition of weed material besides a biological solution for arresting the algal growth in the lake is also in the experimentation stage.
Mehbooba directed urgent de-weeding of the Ashai Bagh track of the lake and cleaning of exit channels at Rainawari, Nawpora and Mir Behree for movement of clean waters through the lake.
The Chief Minister, during the visit, also took stock of the working of the Sewerage Treatment Plants and machines deployed for weed removal in the lake.
Minister of State for Housing & Urban Development, Asiea Naqash; legislators, Noor Muhammad Sheikh and Khursheed Alam; Chief Secretary, B. B. Vyas; Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal; Commissioner-Secretary, Housing & Urban Development, Hridesh Kumar; Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan; Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Dr. Syed Abid Rasheed; Vice Chairman, LAWDA, Abdul Hafeez Masudi; Commissioner, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Dr. Shafqat Khan, other senior officers and a large number of people were present on the occasion.
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