Motijheel to get new lease of Life, High Court ask high Ups to meet

Sagar Suraj

MOTIHARI:  “Motijheel” – a lake located in the heart of Motihari- the headquarter of east champaran district is going to get a new lease of life soon as its development and sanitation is being monitored by High court.

High court has ordered Chief Secretary of Bihar government to convene a meeting with all concerned high ups and place the records for hearing before the court on December 23. This came after court while hearing a civil writ petition filed by Kumar Amit- a Motihari resident. Kumar Amit demanded restoration of Motihari Lake to its original status.

To be noted here, once compared with Dul lake of Jammu and Kashmir by Britishers, the lake fell victim of squatters as well as civic body, which allegedly facilitated drainage outlets to the lake of the whole city.   

Dissatisfied with the affidavit and action taken report filed by Chief Secretary, Bihar government, the court ordered to convene a meeting with all the stakeholders including principal secretary, Urban development, Housing department, government of Bihar, Principal secretary tourism, principal secretary water resource department and principal secretary forest department and bring the latest status and action taken reports before the court.

Citing present status of the Motijheel, the court observed that considering the significance of this water body, the state and Center governments have allocated Rs 21 crore aiming to restoration and development of this Motihari’s lake and BUIDCO has been entrusted with the task of having the water body restored to its original position and status.

While hearing a civil writ, justice Partha Sarthy said that  Nagar Ayukt of Motihari Nagar Nigam indicated in its affidavit that some works has commenced but the issues of the removal of encroachments yet to be resolved. The issues of toilets, de-weeding and de-silting the water body and having proper drainage need to be examined and proper action needs to be taken, the court observed.

The court cited that the proposed more than 1000 trees needs to be planted in the bank of lake . The details projects reports ( DPR) is already under way and proposed to be sent to IIT, Delhi for go ahead , the court mentions in its orders.

Notably, district magistrate of east champaran shirshat Kapil Ashok had successfully removed most of the encroachments in the northern parts of lake during tenure of Priye Ranjan Raju. then Sub divisional officers, but  many encroachments in southern parts are yet to be removed. Social activists are blaming Dr Atul’s nursing homes, a petrol pump and many others nursing homes and houses are constructed on the land of lake in Gayatri Mandir road.

DM Ashok assured the Lake is going to be beatified and a project to develop this lake to attract the tourist is already in pipeline . “ We are working on it’, soon it will get new lease of life”, he said.

 The connecting routes between lake to Dhanauti rivers have long been encroached upon obstructing flow of lake water. To stream line lake water flow, it is essential to remove all these encroachments and without de-weeding and de-silting lake, it is impossible to restore its status and glory.