Chief Secretary B B Vyas on Thursday chaired the 14th meeting of the Monitoring Committee for Preservation and Conservation of Dal-Nageen Lake.Financial Commissioner, Housing and Urban Development Department, Director General of Police, Administrative Secretaries of the Departments of Forest, Tourism and Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs and PHE & I&FC, VC LAWDA, and other senior officers were present in the meeting.Amicus Curie, Zaffar Ahmad Shah, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir and IGP Kashmir participated in the meeting via video conferencing.The Committee reviewed the progress achieved in regard to formulation of comprehensive legal frame work for the enactment of strong legislation for preservation of all water bodies in the state. Secretary Law informed the Committee that the Draft Bill has been circulated amongst concerned departments including Forest and PHE and I&FC for seeking their response by next week.Regarding estimation of pesticides in the Dal lake and conversion of de-weeded material into compost, VC LAWDA informed the Committee that the detailed survey carried out jointly by LDA and SKUAST-K has been completed and SKUAST has submitted the DPR besides LAWDA has received communication from Director, SFRI about the quantity of deweeded biomass required by their department for converting into vermi compost.VC LAWDA further informed that physical demarcation of 200 meter zone of Dal-Nageen Lake has been completed and geo tagging of structures is in process and so far 4200 structures have been geo-tagged from Dalgate to Habak, Kashmir University and NIT. The geo tagging work is also in progress in Check-Saderbal and Khonkhan area. The Authority has has completed the ETS survey of Anchar, Gilsar and Khushalsar and maps from Revenue Authorities have also been received, he added.
The Committee took stock of the status of implementation of the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) with regard to creation of artificial wetlands, rejuvenation of six existing wetlands/retention ponds/reed belts, Water Quality Analysis, Vegetation Mapping and Portable Eco Sounder. The Committee also took stock of the status of purchase of machinery & equipment for the cleaning of Dal-Nigeen lakes from weeds and lily pads and progress on development of Rakh-i-Arth Colony.It was informed that LAWDA has been carrying out demolition drives with the assistance of the Police Department and in the last three months 77 structures have been demolished.The Committee also reviewed the progress in regard to development of Dole Demb and Rejuvenation, Revival of Brari Numbal Lagoon at Srinagar and demarcation of Lake Boundary by way of construction of western foreshore road.Vice Chairman LAWDA informed the Committee that the operation for removal of lily patches/de-weeding and floating trash skimming was called off in the 3rd week of December, 2017 due to inclement weather. However, during the year 2017, 2.9 Sq. Km area was cleared from lily outgrowth. He also presented an overview of the cleaning/de-silting works being undertaken by LAWDA to reclaim various inflow and outflow channels of Dal Lake including inflow channel near Lashkari Mohalla, Dewan Bagh, Telibal, Shalimar navigation channel besides mechanical dredging of Hazratbal basin.