New coalition of NGOs to save lakes

Worried about the poor condition of lakes and the “apathetic attitude” of the government and its agencies, various voluntary organisations came together to form a common platform called United Bengaluru. Under the aegis of Naagarika, the coalition of various citizens’ groups came into existence on Friday. The core committee comprises N S Mukunda, theatre person Prakash Belawadi, architect Naresh Narasimhan, Usha Rajagopalan, Nitin Sheshadri, senior advocate Sajan Poovayya and Namma Bengaluru Foundation’s Sridhar Pabbisetty.

People can reach out to United Bengaluru at their email address [e-mail] and send details about issues facing lakes in their vicinity. The United Bengaluru core group will take up the issue of lake encroachment and fight it legally.

United Bengaluru will be mentored by the expert group of freedom fighter H S Doreswamy, former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, V Balasubramanian, former MLA A T Ramaswamy and Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar. During an interactive session at Town Hall, Doreswamy criticised the government saying it was least concerned about lakes.  Doreswamy said, “When the government is not able to solve basic problems, how can we expect it to run a state or a country?” The core committee members also addressed the gathering and called for joint action instead of fighting for lakes in isolation.