Facelifting Rabindra Sarobar

Kolkata’s powers-that-be are an ignorant lot when it comes to matters like environment and preservation of heritage. It is not a crime not to know everything. But it certainly is if you pretend you know everything, and worse still if you prevent others to do anything meaningful as if nobody knows better than you.

This painful aspect came out in the open on the book fair issue. Surprisingly, the city’s mayor himself, he being a renowned law practitioner, chose to fight against the environmentalists in the High Court. No wonder even after more than a year of his becoming mayor of Kolkata, there is very little appreciative effort with regard to mitigating the concerns of deteriorating environment and preservation issues.

The mayor will of course reel off stats to show his performance – renovating BBD Bag for example. But the fact is, given the size of the city and the neglect it has suffered over decades, protecting overall environment and preservation of heritage sites must be taken up on war footing. There’s little sign of that.

Take the case of Rabindra Sarobar. It goes to environmentalist Subhas Dutta’s credit that the settlers along the railway track not far from the main lake were removed after lot of effort to prevent desecration of the lake. All that was needed after removal of the stumbling block was to spruce up the entire place so that it could regain its past glory.

Unfortunately, the civic authorities have been found wanting in doing that. Every morning and afternoon, Rabindra Sarobar, better known as the Dhakuria Lakes, is choc-a-block with people of every hue. People come in big cars and on foot, and there’s no chance to avoid jostle. Since there is no plan to demarcate areas for particular needs, the entire place resembles a mela during ‘peak hours’.

That doesn’t mean there is any dearth of plan. There have been plenty of them. Latest in the queue is the one given by a team from Jadavpur University (JU). It’s grandiose in scope, and if implemented, will surely usher in an overdue facelift. The plan speaks of making 3 zones in the lake area, Prem, Prakriti and Puja.

While Prem will be free for walkers and the biggest of the 3, Prakriti and Puja with correspondingly lesser area will command entry fees. Puja will be a complete silence zone. [See this TT news]

What now? That’s a million-dollar question. Since the lakes’ ‘owner’ is Calcutta Improvement Trust (CIT) and not the civic authorities, one is not sure if at all anything will happen.

I strongly believe if Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) takes up the issue of beautification of Dhakuria Lakes in right earnest with CIT, improvement can indeed happen. After all, KMC is an elected body while CIT is just an administrative arm.

Which means it is KMC that is answerable to the people for all that happen or do not happen at the Dhakuria Lakes.

Rabindra Sarobar – abundance of green [Copyright, Ghatak, Picture source]