CM visits Agara Lake today; grants Rs 5 crore

Chief minister BS Yediyuruppa visited Agara Lake this morning for a tree planting event titled ‘Vrukshotsava 2019’ by the Forest department. Heeding a request from MLA Sathish Reddy, he also granted Rs 5 crore. However, the residents are wondering what it’s really meant for? A new project at the lake? And why? When Rs 17 crore is already spent on its development, all the water body needs is an annual budgetary grant of Rs 15 lakh towards maintenance. Lake activists feel that the MLA would have been wiser if he had asked for monetary aid to the other neglected lakes in his own constituency.

Interestingly, though the BJP CM announced this grant, the real story is that this money was previously allotted by the Congress government. Since the Lake Development Authority (LDA) was dissolved, the Rs 25 crore grant for the rejuvenation and development of the lake was not fully utilised. Rs 7 crore was still left unspent and returned to the Forest department and later to the treasury.

The residents also made use of this opportunity to hand over memorandums to the deputy CM and MP on other issues that require their attention and intervention, including a skywalk in front of Mantri Sarovar on Outer Ring Road and funds for the completion of the long-delayed restoration work on Somasundrapalya Lake, and the closure of the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC).

We urge the MLA to insist that the CM make similar grants for the other lakes in his zone like Puttenahalli, Chikka Begur, Somasundrapalya, Mangammanapalya, Ibbalur, Arekere, Garvebhavipalya, Singasandra and Sarakki.

Those at the function included deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan, MLA Sathish Reddy, MPs Tejasvi Surya and Kupendra Reddy, mayor Gangambika Mallikarjun, chief secretary TM Vijaybhaskar, Sandeep Dave, additional chief secretary (Forest, Environment and Ecology Department), and corporators Gurumurthy Reddy and Saraswathamma.