State told to set up district-level panels for lake maintenance

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to set up district-level committees, headed by Deputy Commissioners of the districts, on the lines of similar committees set up for city corporations and municipalities across the State, for monitoring maintenance and development of lakes/tanks.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S. Kinagi passed the order while modifying the 2012 directions of the High Court on a PIL petition filed by Environment Support Group and Leo F. Saldanha. The CEO of respective zilla panchayats and one higher officer each from Departments of Forest, Minor Irrigation, Environment would be the members of the committee and the member-secretary of the respective district legal service committee would be the secretary, the court said.

Meanwhile, another Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Oka and Justice M. Nagaprasanna on Wednesday said that it would consider the legal issues related to constructions put up in buffer zones of lakes across the State.

The Bench said that apart from issue of removal of structures put up by the government and its agencies in buffer zones, the court has to delve on the issue of constructions put up legally by private persons whose land form part of the buffer zone of 30 meters from lake areas.