`No cake or shake, we want Powai Lake'!

`No cake or shake, we want Powai Lake'!
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

Mumbai, January 27: The Republic Day spirit proved beneficial for the 110-year-old Powai Lake, where nearly 2,000 school children had gathered on Friday to create public awareness and save the dying lake.

The students from Powai had formed a human chain on the edge of the water-body, as television personalities Mukesh `Shaktimaan' Khanna and Priya Tendulkar came to the venue to see how polluted and neglected the condition of the lake is.

Local Member of Parliament Kirit Somaiya, BJP leader Sardar Tara Singh, residents of the Indian Institute of Science (IIT) and environmentalists were also present at the lake side to highlight the `Save Powai Lake' campaign which is on for over two years now.

In spite of being a public holiday, the students stood under the sun for over two hours shouting slogans such as: `East or West, Powai Lake is the Best' and `Humko milk-shake, cake nahin mangata; humko Powai Lake mangta!'.

Mukesh Khanna and others waved at the children from an open jeep and prayed for the quick recovery of the lake. The students were mainly from the following schools: Bombay Scottish, Kendriya Vidyalaya and Gopal Sharma High School.

The IIT public relations officer, Aruna Dixit, remarked: ``IIT has already diverted its sewage lines to the BMC mains, instead of the lake. This was done at the cost of Rs 1.2 crore, in an attempt to reduce the pollution in the lake.''

Environmentalist Debi Goenka added that the five star hotels and other residential societies coming up in Powai should also ensure that no sewage is thrown into the lake. ``The union ministry of environment had earlier sanctioned a sum of Rs 10.48 crore for the cleaning of the lake. However, this money has yet to arrive in Mumbai,'' informed Goenka.

Kirit Somaiya added that full efforts are on to speed up the cleaning of the Lake, which is just phase-I of the Save Powai Lake campaign.