Gandhisagar Lake: Waterbody or dumping ground!
| Date :06-Nov-2019 |
The fencing wall of Gandhisagar lake on the road towards chor bazar collapsed but who cares! (Pic by Satish Raut)
Principal Correspondent :
The lackadaisical attitude of people who don’t care while using any public places have made the matter worst for the historical Gandhisagar lake situated near Tilak Putla. The Gandhisagar lake, also known as Shukravar Talao and Jumma Talab, is being ignored by political leaders years together. Now public and civic authorities too have joined hands in converting this once beautiful waterbody into a dumping ground. There are many well-known establishments, temples, Raman Science Centre, Vidarbha Premier Housing Society, Shikshak Sahakari Bank, Tata Parsi School, Agyari, Hindu Dnyanpeeth Convent near it. The water in the lake is an outcome of aquifers and the rain.
Gandhisagar lake is almost 300 years old and has witnessed many events. Unfortunately, the subsequent bodies in civic authorities did only one thing - Ignore. A little visible foundation stone tells the story of beautification. The matter on the stone says, in 1993, the bhoomipujan for the beautification plan was performed at the hands of the then Guardian Minister Ranjit Deshmukh. The stone laid by him is lying (half of the stone partially disappeared into the ground), near khau galli with people urinating there. There are circular cement platforms around the lake where the benches were kept to facilitate people watch the lake view and inhale fresh air. The entries to these platforms are closed for the reasons best known to civic authorities. Now lot of garbage is accumulated there.
People used to immerse the idols of Gods into the lake. The stairs near historical Shiva Mandir were used to go inside the lake for the immersion. The next day people used to find huge garbage, damaged idols. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation with fervour created artificial tank for the purpose of immersion of idols, so that the lake would not lose its beauty. The separate arrangement is made by the side of Tamhankar Ganesh Mandir. Such tanks are to be maintained by regular cleaning. But the picture was very disappointing as the tank is not cleaned since long. People too joined hands with the authorities to disfigure the lake by immersing idols in the lake itself instead of in the tank.
The edges of the wall around lake have been damaged and has become a place to dump garbage. Now these walls are on the verge of collapsing. There are pathways constructed in front of Tata Parsi School where stand small eating joints, tea vendors, paan kiosks. No place remained for the family to stand and have a look at the lake. Nearby located are the Parsi Agyari, Tata Parsi school which have historical background. They would have looked beautiful had the pathways kept vacant by disallowing small shops to run their businesses. The private travel buses, trucks are parked on the road near these pathways and help these small businessmen in obscuring the lake view. Bhauji Pagey garden is the only place on this lake that everybody would like to visit. This lake once was glory of the city. The mismanagement of the authorities is one part but the public too is to be blamed. People dump the garbage into the lake and nobody resists them from doing so. Due to mismanagement, this lake has become den of mosquitoes and other insects that spread infection.