The historic Harahi pond in Darbhanga. Picture byPramod Gupta

Darbhanga, Jan. 7: The plan to develop the historic Harahi pond in Darbhanga town into a beautiful tourist spot is gathering dust in the files of the government department.

The tourist department of the state government had decided to develop this pond into an attractive tourist spot. For the purpose of its beautification, the government had given Rs 23 lakh at first stage. The department constructed stairs after some initial work in half of the western side of the pond and planted some trees besides making the ghat suitable for bathing.

However, this has not served the purpose of beautifying the whole pond. The state government did not grant any more funds after the initial amount, resulting in the stoppage of work. Work has kept on postponing since October 2010. government sources said further funds were not released due to non-utilisation of the released fund.

Present district magistrate (DM) of Darbhanga, Santosh Kumar Mall, in his first news conference becoming the DM, had announced that Harahi pond would be developed as the most attractive tourist spot of the town and said the motor boats would be introduced so that tourists can boat.

Mall also claimed that a project would be prepared to construct wooden floating houses in the middle of the pond for jal vihar of tourists besides other the residents of the place. Initially, the plans got a lot of appreciation, but after the passing of six months, nothing has surfaced thus far.

Harahi is among the three big ponds of Darbhanga town and other two are Dighi and Ganga Sagar ponds. Once, late Lalit Babu, former central railways minister had seen a dream for under ground connection of all the three ponds for boating and tourist attraction.

The central government had then written a letter to the district administration to prepare the plan and push for the central approval. But after death of Lalit Babu, that did not happen.

Harahi pond was prepared by the Darbhanga Maharaj after the 1934 earth quake in an attempt to solve the problem of drinking water, situated in the western side of Darbhanga Railway Junction. Three sides of this pond have been opened and surrounded by pucca roads while the fourth and southern side of the pond became a centre for encroachers as house owners extended their houses in pond.

They have not only encroached the pond, but also opened drainage of their houses into the pond, as a result of which the pond water has turned unhygenic. No government machinery is stopping them to do so, which led the dirty smell from water of this pond during whole year.

Once in a year, during Chhath festival, the municipal corporation initiates steps to clean the pond for devotees and spray some medicine powder into the water for removing smell and dirt. That is all. This pond needs proper attention of all those concerned as after proper development, it will become a bug source of revenue for the administration.