HC seeks action-taken report on Nerul lake encroachments

Mumbai: Bombay high court on Tuesday sought an action-taken report from Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) within two weeks regarding the removal of encroachments near Lotus Lake in Nerul.
Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Makarand Karnik were hearing a PIL filed in 2021 by Pradeep Patole to save the 7.5-acre lake and verified wetland surrounded by marshy areas and mangroves. The petition stated that until 2020, activists and residents protected the lake from encroachment and debris dumping. In Feb 2020, the land/slum mafia cleared lotus plants, and debris and garbage were dumped on the lake, and huts sprouted in the area, it added.
Advocate Satyajeet Rajeshirke, representing Patole, said after an earlier HC order, NMMC removed the encroachments. But the encroachments returned. His client then made a representation to NMMC.
The judges were not inclined to appoint a court commissioner to verify the encroachments observing that statutory bodies are under an obligation to remove them. The CJ asked. "Which statutory body will say, ‘I will not remove encroachments'?" NMMC's advocate Tejesh Dande said action was taken earlier against encroachments, to which Justice Karnik said, "You have to take continuous action. It cannot be that one day you remove and again they come back…"
The judges recorded Dande's statement that suitable action shall be taken on Patole's representation and a report will be submitted by the next hearing on April 29. tnn