Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi inspects Motijheel on Tuesday. Picture by Ajit Kumar Verma

Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi visited several spots along the banks of Motijheel on Tuesday and took stock of the measures initiated so far towards its beautification as well as removal of encroachment that has already engulfed a vast land on both sides of this natural lake in Motihari town.

The chief minister was here on Monday to inaugurate government-aided three-day Champaran Sanskritik Mahotsav.

Manjhi also gave certain instructions to East Champaran district magistrate Jitendra Shrivastava regarding beautification of this lake and asked him to expedite this matter. Later, he left for the proposed site of Mahatma Gandhi Central University where the process of land acquisition process had although started over a year ago but the same yet remains to be completed.

Art, culture and youth affairs minister Vinay Bihari, Motihari MLA Pramod Kumar and Satish Kumar MLC and several other legislators were present with the chief minister.

On last day of his Sewa Yatra in 2012, Nitish Kumar, who was chief minister then, had visited several spots on the bank of this 448-acre natural lake.

Nitish was so much enchanted to find this lake that he immediately directed the secretaries of all departments concerned to complete every preparation for converting the same into a national lake.

The former chief minister had also inquired regarding the area and history of Motijheel, its source of water, had there been any plan for its beautification in the past and as also about, encroachments and about any bid ever been initiated for its removal among others.

Nitish had also asked to conduct a satellite survey of the whole area keeping in view the sewerage system, removal of silt and encroachment and ordered the secretaries of tourism, urban development, and irrigation and environment departments to convert it into a revenue generating and highly attractive tourist spot of the state.

Later, a committee of some administrative and police officers under the additional collector was constituted to thoroughly inquire into the cases from various angles before the final removal of their encroachments but all the efforts were aborted mid way.

Several agencies both from in side and out side the district were also engaged for thorough survey of the lake’s land as well as to initiate the process of encroachment removal under provisions of the Bihar Public Land Encroachment Act, but unfortunately any positive result in any could not come so far.

According to Nagar Parishad chairman Prakash Asthana, the Union government has asked to set up a state-level authority in order to ensure proper development of Motijheel in a letter sent to the state government in December 2013 but that remained unattended at the state level.