Patna: The Bihar government has virtually accepted that it had been trying to get a canal free from encroachment since 2015 but has failed to get the desired result till now.

The government's helplessness was visible in its reply tabled in the Legislative Council on Wednesday in response to a call attention by JDU member Dilip Kumar Choudhary.

The House could not discuss the call attention on Wednesday due to paucity of time.

Choudhary's call attention mentioned the poor condition of Motijheel, a lake spread over 400 acres of land in the heart of Motihari, the headquarters of East Champaran district.

The call attention said the lake used to get water through the Ratanpur sub-canal but encroachers had blocked the canal. This obstructed the flow of canal water to the lake.

The government, in its reply, said the canal had been constructed with an aim to provide irrigation facility in the area and it flowed into a natural drain which supplies water to the lake.

The government further said the renovation of the canal could not be carried out due to encroachment. Letters had been written to officials in East Champaran for removing the encroachments.

It said that details had been provided to the district administration in March 2015 and again in September 2016.

One more request was made to the district administration for removing the encroachment from the canal in March 2017.

Reacting to the government's reply, another JDU MLC, Satish Kumar, who hails from Motihari, said the encroachment was not limited to the canal; rather some people had also encroached the Motijheel land.

"The district administration has failed to address the issue of encroachment despite the fact that chief minister Nitish Kumar, during his Vikas Yatra in 2012, had himself directed the officials to make the lake free from encroachment on a priority basis," said Satish.