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Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam chaired 16th monitoring committee meeting on preservation of Dal-Nigeen Lake, constituted under the directions of the High Court in 2015. Chief Secretary
observed that conservation and restoration of Dal-Nageen Lakes is among the top priority areas of the Governor’s Administration and the Prime Minister, in his I-Day speech this year, has
also emphasized upon the necessity for the conservation of this important water body. Vice-chairman LAWDA briefed the committee about the latest recommendations of the Scientific Advisory
Committee (SAC) held on 20 August. The ATR of 15th monitoring committee meeting was also presented. After extensive deliberations, the monitoring committee set a roadmap for undertaking
immediate target-oriented conservation measures for the restoration of the pristine glory of Dal Lake within specified timelines. It was decided that the macrophyte infestation including
expansion of lily patches in open water expanse of Dal Lake shall be cleared by the end of December 2018 for which the VC, LAWDA was authorized to increase the number of boats to 1000 and
skilled labours deployed for the activity to be increased to 2000. This will raise the clearance of weed area to 4 ha/day which translates into 1.2 Sq. Kms/month. This means that in 3
months, almost 5 Sq. Kms of Dal will be cleared. The process of installation of holding tanks/bio-digesters for 900 houseboats will begin immediately and will be completed by 30th November,
2018. In order to facilitate the rehabilitation process of dwellers, the J&K Housing Board was authorized to initiate the construction of 13000 3BHK flats at Rakh-e-Arth through cost
recovery mechanism under PPP mode and 7,500 2BHK flats at Chandpora, Harwan specifically for Dal dwellers on cross subsidized basis. For this purpose, a fresh socio-economic survey of Dal
dwellers residing in the 58 hamlets of Dal Lake shall be carried out by the Revenue Authorities under the supervision of divisional commissioner, Kashmir. The survey shall be completed
within 15 days and report submitted to the Housing & Urban Development Department. The monitoring committee endorsed the recommendation of Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) that
Dredging Corporation of India should make a presentation of their project proposal in the next meeting of SAC. Secretary Law was directed to seek comments of other departments in
finalization of the legislation relating to conservation of water bodies in the state. Chief Secretary in his concluding remarks stressed upon taking up the activities relating to
conservation of the Lake in a mission mode for tangible outcome.