No meetings on Udaipur lakes, Rajasthan HC notices to collector, others

UDAIPUR: Hearing an application against the committee constituted to ensure cleanliness of Udaipur lakes , for not holding periodic meetings, the Rajasthan High Court issued contempt notices to Udaipur collector and other authorities asking them to furnish reply in four weeks.


The application was filed by G P Soni, one of the members of the committee, who apprised the court that no meetings had been conducted for more than a year.

A division bench of Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur had taken suo motu cognizance over a TOI report published on October 2014, titled “Dirty lakes , dead fish mark the end of festive season”. The HC had disposed the case, bearing number 7077/2014 in February 2018, by constituting a committee of seven members to ensure cleanliness of Udaipur lakes and ensure compliance of court orders issued from time to time during the hearing.

The chairperson of this committee is the district collector who had to ensure that the meetings of the committee are held every three months.

Soni, in his application, held that the last meeting was held in May 2018. He further wrote that being one of the members of the committee, he had sent many letters related to various issues including safety of lakes and their drainage system, however, no satisfactory reply was provided by authorities. He held that the authorities are eager to exploit the lakes commercially.