New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) The Supreme Court today expressedconcern over the "completely dry" Ramgarh lake due to whichthe residents of Jaipur were facing acute water shortage andordered demolition of unauthorised construction in the area.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta notedthat unauthorised constructions near the lake, which was awater sports venue during the 1982 Asian Games, havecompletely dried it up and rendered the catchment areas ofRamgarh dam completely useless.
It was "unfortunate" that today, the lake is dry andapparently heavily encroached upon "due to the omissions andcommissions" of various departments of Rajasthan government.
"This is a tragedy of enormous proportions and ratherunfortunately, neither the state of Rajasthan, nor the Jaipurdevelopment authority, has thought it fit to take sternremedial action," the bench said.
It dismissed the pleas filed by the National Institute ofMedical Sciences University (NIMS) and slapped a cost of Rs 10lakh each for the "brazen encroachment" and said the amountshould be deposited in the apex court registry in six weeks.
"It has also come on record that as a matter of fact dueto the illegal and unlawful constructions having been made inthe area by several parties including NIMS, Ramgarh lake isnow absolutely dry and the residents of Jaipur city aresuffering from water shortage," the bench said in itsjudgement.
Water was being supplied to the Jaipur city from herebefore the lake and the surrounding areas dried up.
Noting the significance of the Ramgarh dam, the benchsaid it was constructed in 1903 with a catchment area ofabout 769.20 sq kms spread over four tehsils of Jamvaramgarh,Amer, Shahpura and Viratnagar, and the water harnessed by thedam was a source of irrigation till 1978.
"Thereafter, it became a source of drinking water forJaipur city. During the Asian Games held in India in 1982,Ramgarh Lake was one of the highlights of the games and eventsrelating to water sports were held in the lake," it said.
The top court observed that the Rajasthan High Court hadtime and again passed several directions to ensure free flowof water in the catchment areas of Ramgarh dam but nothingsubstantive has been achieved on the ground.
During the hearing before the top court, the universityhad said they have not encroached any land but there were alarge number of encroachers in the catchment areas.
The bench said that demolition should be carried out bythe Jaipur Development Authority with the assistance of thestate government and the collector on or before November 30.
It directed the Director General of Police of Rajasthanto render necessary assistance in the process of demolitionand said that cost of demolition and removal of rubble wouldbe at the expense of NIMS. PTI ABA MNL SJK RKSARC.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.