We dare everybody in Nagpur, Maharashtra’s Second Capital, on this issue that we have raised most vociferously for the past one week -- publishing large-size pictures of the city’s water-bodies being killed systematically by people whose names are known to all. The pictures we used in this campaign showed dry and desolate lake beds exposed to public view -- with all water having drained out due to various factors or having been drained out by vested interests for reasons best known to themselves. ‘The Hitavada’ expected the people of the city to rise above their prides and prejudices, affiliations and afflictions and ask serious questions to political leaders and administrators -- about the dying lakes and drying rivers. Our expectation continues to haunt us in the sense we appear to be the only ones to raise the issue while the city slumbers. Like any other newspaper of substance, ‘The Hitavada’ has continued raising this and other issues of public concern all along relentlessly without caring for various pressures that try to douse our voice. This commitment to public interest will not wane, no matter what. It is out of this commitment that we now raise this concern once again -- to announce the culmination of the current pictorial series on the city’s lakes and water-bodies. And we promise ourselves that we will continue doing this duty without fear or favour. We borrow the term ‘without fear or favour’ from the title of an old, iconic book by journalist Harrison Salisbury on his newspaper -- because it best describes the condition in which we are continuing our journalism in public interest.

 

Hence our question: When are we going to wake up -- and save our lakes and streams and rivers and other water-bodies big and small? When a city’s lakes are showing signs of dying, the obvious conclusions are three-fold: One, some hydrological disaster is killing the city’s water-bodies; Or, two, some vested interests are ensuring that water-bodies dry up in a natural-looking manner -- so that the grounds are available for ugly monetisation through different construction projects; Or, three, the people of Nagpur have decided to turn a deliberate blind-eye to this disaster. No matter the reason, the outcome of this lack of concern will be visible to the city in a few years when the common people thirst for water -- which, then, the authorities will produce by spending Himalayan sums on different water-supply projects. And that will happen only because the city slumbered when vested interests plotted for destruction of various water-bodies over time. This will certainly sound to be a hard and harsh judgement, but we appeal to people to ponder over this diabolical possibility looming large in the distance.

 

We have done our duty this time. We have done our duty in the past. And we will keep doing our duty in the future as well -- in the fond hope that some day the city will emerge from its slumber and accost those in power -- political or administrative -- to ask questions about dying and drying water-bodies. In the pictorial series we are culminating (for the time being), we covered the visible ill-effects of the city’s collective apathy to the Gandhisagar or Shukrawari Talao, Lendi Talao, the Sakkardara Talao, the Naik Talao, the Pandhrabodi Talao, and the Police-Line Takli Talao. Today’s photo depicts a similar ugly picture of Binaki Mangalwari Talao. We do hear from time to time that the administration is spending some money for rejuvenation of some lakes. But the overall picture does not change, no matter what the administration or political leadership does. May we ask: Why? This is the actual concernnnnn ! -- that the city has refused to wake up.n