Govrnor sets March 09 deadline for Srinagar sewerage project SRINAGAR, July 21: Governor, N N Vohra, today set a deadline of March 2009 for completion of the mega Drainage and Sewerage Project for the Srinagar City and called for establishing a Task Force to ensure round the clock work on the scheme. Taking a review of the Dal-Nageen Lake Conservation and Management Plan here this morning, the Governor observed that inter-departmental interactions under one roof would help in plugging the bottlenecks in executing the Project. This, he said, assumes added significance in view of the limited working season available in the Valley besides ensuring against time and cost escalations. Vohra suggested that along side expediting the work on the Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs), the time frames for completion of lateral connectivity in the designated areas also needs to be met. For this purpose, a Master Plan must be worked out to ensure time-bound completion of all the works, he maintained. Expressing grave concern over the shrinking of the world-famous Dal Lake, Vohra stressed the need for launching a mass movement, effectively involving the non-Governmental organizations, the civil society, interest groups, students and the general public at large, to preserve and conserve the Lake, which he described as the Soul of Kashmir. He particularly pinned hope in youngsters and observed that they will come forward in a big way to restore the pristine glory of this water body. He also emphasized the need for creating general awareness through the voluntary organizations and the mass media. The Governor felt that conservation of the Lake will not only be a big boon for the tourist industry but will also entail world- acclamation in view of global concern for ecology and environment. He expressed his anguish over the inflow of toxic effluents into the Lake besides floating polythene and plastic materials and called for evolving a scientific mechanism to ensure their proper garbage disposal. He advised urgent enactment of a legal framework for checking civic violations and suggested that the people should be made aware through a sustained campaign about their duties. While rewards or incentives for maintenance of civic norms should be introduced, punitive action also needs to be taken against violators once the Municipal Rules are formulated and made applicable, he added. Vohra stressed the urgent need for deweeding in the Dal Lake on a massive scale and urged an immediate for increasing the work force to achieve visible results. He suggested involvement of students and the voluntary organizations in supplementing this effort. For acquiring lake cleansing machinery in a time bound basis, a Coordination Committee was suggested by the Governor. The Governor also called for the satellite imaging of the Lake to ascertain its latest status. Besides Conservation and Management Plan drawn up for the Lake, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Plan was also discussed in the meeting. The meeting was informed that out of Rs 298.79 crores earmarked under the Conservation and Management Plan, about Rs 150 crores had been spent till June this year. Among others, the meeting was attended by Chief Secretary, S S Kapur, Principal Secretary, Planning, Madhav Lal and Principal Secretary to Governor, B B Vyas. Commissioner/Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, s Naseema Lanker, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Masud Samoon, IGP. Kashmir Range, S M Sahai, Vice Chairman, LWADA, Irfan Yaseen, Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, Mohammed Rafi, Chief Engineer, UEED, Malhotra, Commissioner, Srinagar Municipality, Showkat Ali were also present. The Governor was given a power-point presentation on