BANGALORE: In response to a PIL filed by the Environment Support Group challenging the privatisation of management and rehabilitation of lakes in Bangalore, the committee under the chairmanship of High Court Judge N K Patil has recommended that private sector participation based on consequential commercial interest is not desirable. The committee was constituted by the Principal Division Bench of the High Court to formulate a long term plan to conserve lakes in Bangalore. As the court observed that the report satisfies ‘all the prayers made at the hands of the petitioners in the instant writ petition, except the one pertaining to leaseholders, who have made construction in the periphery of the lake, or are in the process of making such construction’ referring to lakes already privatised. The committee headed by Justice Patil made 10 recommendations, one of which states that commercial exploitation of any lake cannot be allowed under any circumstance.To arrive at this recommendation, the committee observed that “The private entrepreneurs to whom the lakes have been handed over for maintenance have not been able to do complete justice to ecology. Ultimately, profit motive has prevailed over the public interest and public trust.”The committe also observed that, “Any model involving private public participation where in dominion over the natural resource belonging to the state is handed over to a private entrepreneur either for rejuvenation or for management/maintenance, the same is likely to result in an anamolous situation requiring constant supervision by the state and its authorities to ensure that there is no deviation from the state policy and norms.”On such rationale proposing that “It becomes just and necessary that the participation of private sector in the rejuvenation and development of lakes and tanks in and around the city of Bangalore has to be highly discouraged if not eliminated.” Submissions of this committee will be deliberated before HC’s Principal Bench on November 3.
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