The people of Srinagar Jammu and Kashmir demanded the conservation of the river Jhelum to save the world famous heritage water body and make it pollution free.
However, government apathy and negligence has resulted in the river shrinking and losing its glory due to a faulty garbage disposal system and encroachments on the banks of Jhelum.
"It is very important because our future generation will not be able to see the Jhelum as we see now. Because the manner the government is functioning at present to preserve it, is not correct and I don't think the government is moving along a fast track in this direction," said a resident, Mohmmad Bashir.
Although some years back the provincial irrigation and flood control department started a dredging and beautification drive on this world famous heritage water body, aiming to return its past glory for tourist attraction, it was shelved. Resultantly, mud and silt remain accumulated on the banks of Jhelum.
People of Srinagar demand that the government should take strong steps to restart the dredging drive and cleanse the heritage water body immediately.
"Tourists come here mostly to see this because it is considered as one of the most beautiful places. People come here and pollute this beautiful place and I have to tell those people that if this place dies off, a major part of our industry will also suffer a setback. So, it is important to keep it clean, said a resident, Shehzad Ahmad.
However state authorities promise an amount of 790 million rupees has been earmarked for the restoration and beautification purpose of river Jhelum.
"If you go in the interior of the river, you will find a lot of garbage. People living on the banks dump the garbage of old houses into the river and we are removing it. We are also developing guards, making news parks, foot paths and building new retaining walls. We are also planning illumination poles on both sides of the river. For all this we have kept a budget of Rupees 79 Crore. There have been a few observations regarding this, which have been cleared. I thing this project will be cleared in this year," said Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control of Jammu and Kashmir, Javed Jaffer.
The Irrigation department authorities also added that the restoration work faced problem due to bad weather conditions.
