Karnataka High Court directs BBMP to submit specimen of MoUs to allow lake maintenance by corporate entities
The High Court of Karnataka has directed the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and the State government to submit a specimen of a memorandum of understanding to be executed with corporate entities, NGOs, resident welfare associations and others to allow them to take responsibility for lake maintenance according to the terms of the proposed BBMP Community Involvement for Lake Conservation Policy, 2024.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind issued the direction while hearing a batch of PIL petitions on the issues related to lakes in the State and Bengaluru and stormwater drains in Bengaluru.
Appearing for the BBMP and the State government, State Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty requested the court to modify its March 4, 2020, interim order and grant permission to allow BBMP, corporate firms and others to take up the public cause of maintaining the lake as the government is not in a position to spend crores of rupees required to maintain 205 lakes under the BBMP.
2020 interim order
The court, in its March 4, 2020 order, said: “Prima facie, it appears to us that by the execution of the said agreements, the State wants to shift its burden of maintaining the lakes to the private corporate entities. Unless the legality of such agreements is examined, we cannot permit the State Government to execute such agreements. Therefore, we direct that till further orders are passed, the State government shall not execute any such MOU with any corporate entity. However, this order will not prevent the State government from taking funds from the corporate entities for rejuvenation of lakes.”
However, senior advocate Jayna Kothari, appearing for some of the petitioners, opposed the government’s fresh move to sign MoUs while emphasising that it is the duty of the civic authorities to maintain the lakes and that the authorities cannot grant possession of lakes to corporate entities.
To this, the AG said the proposed new lake conservation policy nowhere contemplates handing over exclusive possession to the corporate entities, but funds and their participation are invited for maintaining the lakes in a better condition through MoUs.
Following these submissions, the Bench asked the BBMP to prepare a specimen of the MoU and give a copy for the petitioners to seek their suggestion and submit a copy to the court for its consideration during the next date of hearing on September 11.
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