At a time when the Centre and the state are bickering over the location of the Central University of Bihar, a son of the soil is likely to take up the Motijheel issue on a national platform to save the dying lake.

Champaran, which has been witness to Mahatma Gandhi’s experiment with truth during his Satyagraha Movement against the British in 1917, also has the privilege of being the birthplace of Om Prakash Kejriwal, who was born in 1944.

When asked about the poor condition of Motijheel, a natural lake that flows through his hometown, Kejriwal, the first information commissioner of India, said: “Motijheel has always been in my memory and it is a top priority in the national agenda of Jal Jeewan Dhara Samiti, an organisation working for the preservation and protection of the Ganga.”

The Motijheel has turned into a dump yard after residents kept pouring in trash in the lake for years, which divides the town into two parts.

Kejriwal, according to sources, is likely to reach Motihari soon to take up the lake’s issue. After retirement, he had settled in Kashipura, Varanasi. He has now dedicated his life to protection of natural water resources in the country.

At a convention of the executive committee of Jal Jeewan Dhara Samiti held on April 7-8 at Varanasi, Kejriwal was unanimously nominated the national patron of the body. “At present, he is working in 12 states of the country for issues related to drinking water problems, to ensure pure and free flow of the river waters,” said Sanjay Kaushik, the state general secretary and a member of the samiti.

Kejriwal was born in the family of a jute merchant and was later selected to the civil services in 1966. Kejriwal received his early education from a tutor at his ancestral home in Henary Bazaar of Motihari town. No sooner did he reach six years of age, his father Motilal Kejriwal preferred to keep his son away from him in Muzaffarpur and other places from where Kejriwal completed his academic career. Motilal, who sold his Motihari house during his last days, was deemed to be the biggest jute trader in the erstwhile Tirhut region.

“Kejriwal hardly visited the town more than thrice ever since he left Motihari but the faint memory of his ancestral house with 52 rooms is still afresh in his memory. The long and beautiful stretch of Motijheel, which divides the town in two parts, is still a source of thrill and joy for him,” said Kaushik.

Kejriwal was awarded the Nehru Fellowship by the Nehru Foundation in 1990 and also remained the director of Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, Teen Murti Bhawan, New Delhi.