BENGALURU: Five days after volunteers of Vibhutipura Kere Kshema Abhivrudhi Sanga and citizens from nearby layouts cleaned the Vibhutipura Lake surroundings and planted saplings, two youths were on Thursday caught dumping plastic waste into the water body.
After walkers confronted the youths, they tried to justify their act by stating that it was only puja items.
The volunteers immediately brought the matter to the attention of BBMP Chief Engineer (lakes) Vijayakumar Haridas, who said he will ask the engineers concerned to look into the issue. Haridas added that an FIR will be registered against the youths.
A video of the confrontation between the volunteers and youths went viral on social media. “Dumping waste in lakes is a violation. We have conducted awareness programmes on this and have even roped in resident welfare associations regarding do’s and dont’s on lake premises. We will try to get an FIR registered into the incident as this will prove a deterrent,” Haridas said. Haridas added that security measures like additional home guards will be deployed in all lakes across the city.
Sathyavani Sridhar, BPac member and Talacauvery Layout resident who was involved in rejuvenating the lake, expressed displeasure over the people dumping garbage.“The lake was brought to life after a lot of struggle. Last Saturday and Sunday, residents of Veerabhadra Nagar, Brindavan Layout and apartments in nearby areas cleaned the lake area and planted saplings. BBMP should install CCTV cameras and fence the water body,” Sridhar said.She added that police patrolling has become irregular and many illegal activities were noticed on the lake premises.