Ajmer: A city lower court Wednesday issued notices to the chief secretary, Ajmer district collector, Ajmer DevelopmentAuthority and others, over alleged irregularities in desilting works worth Rs 78.8 crore going on at Ana Sagar and Varun Sagar (Foy Sagar) lakes.The notices were issued by the Civil Judge, Ajmer North, on a petition filed by Congress city president Rajkumar Jaipal, who alleged that the district administration began desilting the two lakes without demarcation of wetland areas and that the removed silt gathering near the water bodies could lead to encroachment by land mafias. The court sought responses from the govt bodies on the issues raised. The next hearing is scheduled for July 16.Briefing about the petition, Jaipal and his advocate Vivek Parashar said the court also issued notices to PollutionBoard officials. Both emphasised the alleged lack of scientific planning and technical assistance taken by the district administration in initiating the work. “The district administration neither sought scientific advice nor technical assistance; instead, it merely awarded a contract to a contractor to remove the silt from the lake, which will disrupt the wetland areas where seasonal birds breed,” Jaipal claimed.Jaipal said, “Rs 78.8 crore is the money of common people and now the district administration is using it to get the silt out and gather it near the lakes to make it a land parcel that will be available for the land mafias.”Further, the petitioners demanded the immediate demarcation of wetlands surrounding the lakes, as well as the cessation of drains discharging waste into Ana Sagar Lake. Parashar criticised the project, arguing, “They are not stopping the sewerage coming into Ana Sagar but taking out the silt. In that way, the sewerage will again be collected in the lake, which makes this project useless.”Parashar alleged that the treatment plant at Ana Sagar Lake was non-functional, leading to untreated waste entering the water body. “All the garbage from nallahs is dropping into the lake, which should be stopped first,” he said.
