The Director Tourism Kashmir, Dr. GN Ittoo on Tuesday visited Dal Lake and participated in the ongoing de-weeding operation.The Director was accompanied by Vice-Chairman LAWDA, Dr. Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Executive Engineer Mechanical Division, Executive Engineer Lake Division Ist and other senior officials of the department.The Director also visited the area of Dal Lake where under a mega program lily extraction has been undertaken this year. Dr Ittoo hailed the efforts of LDA in cleaning of Dal Lake and hoped that in future more efforts will be put in by LDA to achieve the targets. Terming the famous Dal Lake “heritage”, Dr. Ittoo said this Lake is having great importance with respect to our tourism, culture and other sectors.He praised the effort of LAWDA for extracting the unwanted weeds from the Dal and said, “I believe this is the biggest post-pandemic initiative taken up by LAWDA to ensure cleanliness in the Lake”.He said, “I am hopeful the drive shall continue in coming days” and appealed to all sections of society to play their role in maintaining the aesthetics of the Lake.
Dr. Ittoo while lauding the efforts of LAWDA authorities said, “The officers of LAWDA are themselves monitoring the drive on a daily basis which shows their commitment and resolve towards making the Lake free from all pollutants”.It is pertinent to mention that the LDA has pressed in 16 pontoon based machines for lily extraction in Dal Lake for the first time. With the deployment of these machines LDA has so far cleared approx an area of 1.00 sq km out of the total targeted area of 2.50 sq km. Further LDA is also employing 400 to 450 laborers on a daily basis for removal of weed from the Lake.The LDA is being provided support by various organizations, NGO’s, students and others in cleaning the Dal Lake and have remained attached with LDA since October 2nd when Lieutenant Governor J&K Manoj Sinha flagged off the drive from SKICC here.As per the official, several volunteers from the Department of Home Guard also participated on Tuesday in the operation.