Nagpur: While water hyacinth that had choked vast portions of Ambazari Lake has been largely removed, the area around the Swami Vivekananda statue appears to have been overlooked in the cleanup.A visit by TOI to the memorial found the stretch littered with garbage and visibly unkempt. Waste has accumulated along the embankment, while the overflow point behind the memorial remains muddy and slushy.As reported earlier by TOI, the memorial draws few visitors, with stray dogs and occasional vagrants more often seen there than people spending time at the site. The imposing statue stands amid surroundings that do little justice to the legacy it honours.“We welcome NMC’s move to remove the water hyacinth, but now it should also clean up the part of the lake near this memorial,” said resident Ritesh Chande. He added that removal of the weed should be a regular exercise, rather than a weekend spectacle.“Civic sense has always been non-existent. People will litter, but the NMC needs to step up its enforcement game,” said another local, Kush Rathod.NMC sources told TOI that the stretch may have been left out of the de-weeding drive because embankment construction and strengthening work is under way near the memorial. Dharampeth zone assistant commissioner Rajkumar Meshram said garbage collection in the area falls under his jurisdiction and assured that he would have the waste cleared. “I’ll also talk to the authorities responsible for the hyacinth removal,” he said.The statue is mounted on a 30-foot pedestal, taking its highest point to 51 feet above ground level. Weighing nearly four tonnes, it has a stainless-steel internal framework and stands against a decidedly unkempt backdrop.
