Mumbai: A silent “Save Powai Lake” human chain scheduled for Sunday by local residents and nature lovers was cancelled after the BMC demanded a nominal “event fee” of Rs 11,000 to organise it at the lakeside. Green activists alleged they tried in vain to explain to civic officials that this was not an event but a public expression of concern to save the lake from pollution and floating weeds such as hyacinths.The human chain was planned for Sunday, June 8, to focus on the need to conserve Powai Lake as part of Mumbai region’s biodiversity, said the activists.“For about a week the BMC was making us go round in circles for a simple no-objection certificate for the human chain after we obtained the police nod,” said Pamela Cheema, chairperson of the advanced locality management committee (ALMC). Police suggested that the organisers seek the BMC’s approval as well.Cheema said, “Despite the police forwarding them our request and we ourselves presenting the BMC’s S ward office our request, the officials were searching for the documents till Friday.” The BMC insisted on payment of “a nominal fee of Rs 11,000” for using the Powai Lake premises, she said.BMC’s sub-engineer from S ward, Veer Alankar, said he sent the circular and the fee payable to Cheema since it is an event. “We are not holding a concert or any cultural event,” Cheema said.Calling the BMC event fee for the human chain as unprecedented, NatConnect director B N Kumar said, “It amounts to scuttling the democratic rights of environmentalists to freedom of speech. The Constitution of India guarantees the right to a clean environment.” Kumar further said they will regroup and discuss the future course to save the lake.In the past two weeks, though, following the local citizens’ appeal to save the lake, the BMC has started mechanically removing the water hyacinths from the lake’s surface. The process is still on at the lake site by using machines to cut and remove the hyacinths.Local resident and photographer Mukesh Trivedi said, “Perhaps the senior civic officials could have waived off the ‘event fee’ because none of us were going to form the human chain for any commercial gain.”“As much as we have passionately worked towards this cause, we are being forced to not go ahead with it due to bureaucratic hurdles,” said Milan Bhat, one of the organisers. “It has been a sad day for our environment, but we haven’t lost hope. We will come back stronger,” she said.
