India’s ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan, one of the members of the expert committee formed by the High Court (HC) last month to save the Dal Lake, has expressed his inability to be part of the effort.
In a letter to the HC, Sreedharan has cited “illness and old age” as the ground for not being able to be part of the expert committee.
To look for the “immediate measures” aimed at the conservation of the dying Dal, a division bench of the HC headed by Chief Justice Gita Mittal had, on September 18, ordered constitution of a three-member expert committee comprising Sreedharan, Nivideta Dhar and MC Mehta, a known environmentalist of the state.
However, as the matter came up before the court again on Monday, it was revealed that Sreedharan had expressed his inability to be part of the expert committee. Accordingly, the bench directed the registrar (judicial) and the other two members of the committee to look for another expert in place of Sreedharan.
On September 18, while ordering constitution of an expert committee, the HC had observed that “crores have been spent so far, but nothing has happened on the ground”, adding “immediate measures were necessary before the situation was rendered hopeless”.
The government, in its report, had informed the High Court that for since 2002, Rs 759 crore had been spent on the conservation of the Dal.
