BBMP's lake MoU plan will let citizens have a say

After a gap of three years, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) may put power back into citizens' hands by letting them have a say in the upkeep and management of city lakes, as it plans to resume signing MoUs with local lake groups and not-for-profit organisations.

However, sources in the BBMP said the MoUs may come in a new avatar with a set of conditions. "There were complaints about lack of transparency in expenditure last time. Hence, now we are mulling over including conditions in the MoU to restrict them to lake monitoring and maintenance and keep the financial aspects separate. We are still mulling on the conditions of the agreement," a senior official from the department said.

Since 2011, the civic body was signing MoUs with corporate entities, NGOs and lake groups, but the process was put on hold after a Karnataka High Court order which opined that the BBMP was trying to shift the burden of maintenance of lakes on the corporate entities. However, citizen groups had since argued that the order only applied to corporate entities and that the BBMP could continue the arrangement with local lake groups and not-for-profit organisations.

In a recent interaction with a few lake groups, the BBMP Special Commissioner (Lakes) Preeti Gehlot discussed the idea of bringing back the arrangement. "The high court order is not a blanket ban on all the MoUs. We think citizens have to be involved in lake maintenance and monitoring. Hence, we want to sign these MoUs. We will also make a point during the HC hearing," she said.

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Lake groups which have been seeking renewal of agreements said the BBMP has no bandwidth to closely monitor lakes and that such arrangements were important.

"BBMP cannot ensure day-to-day monitoring and local residents and groups must be given some authority. Without such MoUs, our trusts are not legally equipped and we can neither raise funds from the local community or corporates," said Usha Rajagopalan, chairperson of Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust of JP Nagar 7th Phase.

However, Leo F Saldanha, trustee of the Environment Support Group and one of the petitioners in the PIL filed with the high court, said the PIL was filed based on the misuse of a few lakes and the BBMP should contemplate before getting into an MoU. "We have seen how those who had entered into MoUs had misused the lakes and converted them into parks and entertainment zones. The BBMP needs to contemplate its action in the light of the high court directive," he said.

V Ramprasad, co-founder and convenor of Friends of Lakes (FOL) also cited examples of how a few corporate entities had misused the MoUs and had in fact encroached upon the lake area. "There were cases where builders misused the lake area. There was no transparency and accountability. If the BBMP wants to enter into MoUs, they should make sure that the local citizens and ward committees are involved," he said.