HC pulls up RMC for not maintaining Ranchi Lake

Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Friday came down heavily on Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) for its lack of maintenance of the Swami Vivekanand Sarovar (Ranchi Lake) and directed the civic body to apprise the court regarding its plan of beautifying the lake. The high court also instructed the government to present its plan of restoring and conserving all the water bodies in the state before the court.
While hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate Khushbu Kataruka, the division bench — comprising Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad — observed that there can be no excuse by RMC in having failed to maintain the beauty of the vast Ranchi Lake, also known as Bada Talab.
In her petition, Kataruka stated that the lake is infested with water hyacinths and has become the sewage pond of the civic body. All the sewage of the city is drained into the lake, the counsel mentioned before the judges. She further said that the heavy vehicles parked near the lake are often washed there and the dirty water trickles into the water body, leading to its further damage.
The RMC said that it has already floated tenders five times earlier for cleaning the lake, but there are no takers for the work. The bench did not accept its arguments and directed the civic body to file its reply regarding the matter. The case will be listed again after four weeks to enable the civic body and the government to comply with the directives of the high court.