A few days ago, Prime Minister Balendra Shah called Pokhara Mayor Dhanraj Acharya and asked him to submit a report on the implementation of the decision.
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The implementation of the Supreme Court's decision on the conservation of Fewa Lake 7 years ago has begun. On the instructions of Prime Minister Balendra Shah, Pokhara Metropolitan City has started using dozers on illegal structures on the banks of Fewa Lake since Saturday morning. The swimming pool, gate and wall of tourism entrepreneur Karna Shakya's Water Front Resort have also been demolished. Mayor Dhanraj Acharya said that the demolition began by mobilizing the police from 4:30 in the morning. A few days ago, Prime Minister Shah called Acharya and requested him to submit a report on the implementation of the decision. The metropolis had also submitted a report. Immediately, the government directed the demolition of illegal structures. The issue of conservation of Fewa Lake is also mentioned in the hundred action plans set by the government for governance reforms.
About 150 police officers from the District Police Office, Baidam Police, City Police and Armed Police were deployed in the field. Mayor Acharya told Kantipur that dozers had been used on about 30 structures since morning.
The Supreme Court had given two historic verdicts on the protection of Fewa Lake.
On April 16, 2075, a bench of Om Prakash Mishra and Sapana Pradhan Malla had asked the central, provincial and local governments to remove illegal structures and protect the lake within a specified time frame. Similarly, on June 4, 2080, a bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Hari Prasad Phuyal had ordered the demolition of the illegal structures constructed within 65 days in the case of Shakya's Water Front Hotel.
After the first verdict by the Supreme Court, during the study of the investigation committee formed by the government, it was found that Shakya's Water Front Resort was built on the land of Fewa Lake. In a study conducted by a committee formed by the government as per the Supreme Court's order, it was found that Shakya had built permanent and temporary structures within 65 meters of Fewa Lake.
According to the committee's report, the main gate of the resort was within 65 meters. The committee's report stated that only two of Shakya's structures were built on his own land and all the other structures were on Fewa Lake's land.
The committee also tested samples of water used and discharged at the resort. Although there is a system to treat the water used at the resort before mixing it with Fewa Lake, the water was found to be unfit for consumption when tested in a laboratory.
A six-member committee formed under the coordination of Narayan Regmi, Chief Surveyor of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land Management and Cooperatives, conducted an on-site survey to investigate whether the lake's land was encroached upon.
The committee included Prashant Ghimire of the Survey Department, Bishnu Gharti, Legal Officer of the Land Revenue, Kalpana Shrestha, Senior Divisional Chemist of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and Humnath Pandey of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.
What was the Supreme Court's decision?
The Supreme Court had ordered the government to declare a conservation area within 65 meters of the 4 fort area mentioned in the report by the committee coordinated by Bishwaprakash Lamichhane, and to prohibit the construction of any physical structure that would affect the conservation of the lake, including buildings.
The court had also ordered that the land of the lake registered in the name of a person be cancelled within a year and brought back into the name of the lake. The Supreme Court had made this decision after advocate Khagendra Subedi filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on 10 Magh 2067 for the conservation of Fewa Lake.
If additional land is required for the conservation of Fewa Lake, the Supreme Court had directed that the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management, the National Lake Development and Conservation Committee, the Land Revenue Office, Kaski, and the Pokhara Valley City Development Committee should coordinate and take necessary decisions to acquire additional land around Fewa Lake as per the Land Acquisition Act, 2034 BS and other related laws and ensure the long-term conservation of the lake.
The Supreme Court had directed that the National Lake Development and Conservation Committee, the Pokhara Valley City Development Committee, and the Pokhara Metropolitan City Office should coordinate and take necessary decisions to ensure that the biodiversity of Fewa Lake and the lives of aquatic animals dependent on it are not endangered, that the lake water is not polluted, that the natural area of the lake is not encroached upon, that houses and hotels are not built in the vicinity, and that any work that negatively affects the environment of the lake is not carried out.
