Sanitise Pumlenpat, save settlers: PYDO to Covt
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, January 28 2023:
Urging the authority concerned to conduct cleansing activities in Pumlenpat lake which is filled with weeds and save the people of Pumlen Yangbi who are dependent on the lake for survival, Pumlen Yangbi Development Organisation (PYDO) has appealed to the government not to convert Pumlen Yangbi village into an aquaculture land inside a wetland.
Addressing media persons at Manipur Press Club here on Saturday, PYDO vice president Inganba Waikhom expressed fear that Pumlen Yangbi village could be turned into a wetland in the wake of the state government's initiative to protect wetland areas in the state.
He informed that since time immemorial, the village has been in existence and the villagers carrying out agricultural activities in the area.
Ever since the state government declared Pumlenpat as State Fishery Land number 155, the people of Pumlenpat have been informing the government that the area has been their settlement area for many years and carrying out agricultural activities following which the government provided 100 'paris' of land to the villagers and de-reserved the area in 1963.Later in 1967, the government provided 750 'paris' of land in the name of various villages and cooperative farming societies.
Inganba Waikhom further informed that the water level of Pumlenpat began to rise with the implementation of Loktak Hydro project in 1985 and since then Pumlenpat has become gradually thickened by weeds thereby creating problems for the people depending on the lake.
Under such a condition, cultivation activities have become almost impossible with 80 per cent of the area covered by weeds.
Therefore, the government needs to clean up Pumlenpat lake and save the people of the area, he said while urging the authority concerned not to make Pumlenpat lake an aquaculture land inside a wetland.