Bellandur residents protest over inaction in cleaning lake
BENGALURU: Residents of Bellandur staged a protest march on Saturday at 3.30pm against the inaction of official agencies to clean up Bellandur Lake. Froth covering the lake had caught fire on Thursday, the third incident in the past three years.
Nearly 200 people took part in the protest. Express on Saturday had reported that BBMP, BWSSB and KSPCB have been playing a blame game while continuing to shy away from taking the responsibility.
Seema Sharma, a resident, said, “Two years ago, a firm called Green Elephants came forward to clean up the waste without any cost. All they needed was land and a vehicle. But the officials didn’t even provide those. A few residents, after running around so much, finally gave up and left the area.”
Seema adds that the local corporate, Asha Suresh, too has been passing on the blame to BBMP and has never visited the lake herself. An online petition asking the Chief Minister for immediate clean-up of the lake was uploaded when the lake caught fire the last time.
That petition has now been reopened and has until now received 46,971 signatures, just over 3,000 short of the 50,000 needed.