Greens want construction work at Pipliyahana halted

Indore: A group of volunteers of The Nature Volunteers met divisional commissioner Sanjay Dubey and submitted a memorandum asking the chief minister and other officials to stop the construction work at Pipliyahana Lake.
Bhalu Mondhe, president of The Nature Volunteers said they submitted the memorandum with signatures of 350 resident of the city. "We want to tell them that the people of the city are concerned about saving the lake and administration should immediately stop construction activity there," Mondhe said.
He said they were expecting a response from the officials and would wait for a few days to before deciding about the future course of action. "If our voices are not heard, we will approach the Prime Minister," he said. The volunteers are planning to intensify its movement save the lake and would try to associate about 10 lakh people with the cause. Expressing his concern, Mondhe said that if the construction work is not stopped at the lake, similar works would start in other parts affecting the nature. Mondhe said there was a lot of space in the area in which the construction can take place and it was not necessary to use the land of the lake. "We are not against development; there is a bigger problem that we are raising. Building a court premises on a water body shows double standards. This should not happen," Mondhe explained. A petition was also filed against construction of a court building in the area, but National Green Tribunal (NGT) dismissed it.
Tribunal in its order said that it found no records that could show that the allotted land was a part of Pipliyahana Lake. However, NGT also said in its order that water body falling adjacent to the premises shall be kept in natural state without disturbing the ecological habitat.