Kashmir News Trust
For the past 9 months, the ‘Gawkadal Lock Gate’ that regulates the water level in Dal Lake has been defunct much to the disconcertment of the inhabitants of Dal Lake.
The present water level in the Dal Lake is above normal as ‘Lakes Conservation & Management Authority’ (LC&MA)-the erstwhile LAWDA has not shown any interest in repairing the defunct Dal Lock Gate also known as Gawkadal gate.
Insiders told news agency Kashmir News Trust that the Gawkadal gate is under repair for months. The gate is defunct and is not going upward as tools of the mechanical division of the LC&MA are out of order.
An employee of LC&MA wishing anonymity said that a couple of days ago, some technical staff tried to fix the problem but their tools were out of order and they returned back without repairing the gate.
“The inhabitants of Dal will suffer badly during the rainy season if this gate is not repaired. We fail to understand the priorities of LC&MA,” Muhammad Sultan, an inhabitant of the Dal Lake said.
The locals said that LC&MA has not only failed to repair the defunct gate but also disfigured the beauty of the Choont Kul waterbody which is completely choked.
The locals living in the surroundings of Choont Kul navigational canal alleged the ground officials of LC&MA have made the life of residents miserable by laying thousands of plastic sandbags into the canal which has completely chocked the waterbody that branches out from the Jhelum just near the Zero Bridge and rejoins it in the Maisuma locality of Srinagar, a few meters downstream of the Budshah Bridge.
When KNT tried to contact Vice Chairman LC&MA, Bashir Ahmed Bhat and Executive Engineer, Lake Division 2nd Muhammad Ashraf Bab, they didn’t respond to repeated phone calls. (KNT)
