The District Development Authority and Nainital Municipality have started issuing notices for eviction and demolition to owners of buildings built illegally after encroaching on the submerged area of the Sukhatal, the catchment area of the Naini lake in Nainital.
It is pertinent to mention here that local environmentalist Ajay Rawat had filed a PIL in the high court during 2012 against the illegal constructions encroaching on the banks of the Sukhatal lake. The court had then directed the authority and municipality to identify such constructions. During the tenure of the then Kumaon commissioner D Senthil Pandian in 2014, a team formed for this purpose had marked 44 buildings encroaching along the lake.
The municipality had demolished one illegal construction while the 43 remaining constructions are yet to be demolished. The district development authority junior engineer Kamal Kishore Joshi informed that the authority had issued notices to 16 persons asking them to vacate the buildings soon. The building owners have also been asked to themselves remove the encroachments.
According the municipality executive office Ashok Kumar Verma, the municipality has also issued notices to the owners of illegal constructions encroaching on the submerged area of the Sukhatal lake.
If the encroachers do not remove their encroachments voluntarily themselves, action will be initiated from March 5 against the illegal constructions at the site, he added.