Is our PM serious at all about Mission Ganga?

River basin authority holds third meeting

himanshuthakkar

Himanshu Thakkar | April 18, 2012



The prime minister on Tuesday delivered a most disappointing speech at the 3rd National Ganga River Basin Authority meeting.

It promises nothing, says the most discredited IIT Roorkee report (that even the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Projects criticized and does not follow) and the report of the Wildlife Institute of India (that his environment minister Jayanti Natrajan refuses to follow) will be their guiding lights and a multi-disciplinary group will now study them!

PM also has hopes from the IIT consortium to provide guidance for future! The consortium that has no track record on either understanding the complex social, cultural, environmental, economic and governance issues that plague the issues related to the state of the river, not does it have track record of taking independent positions on these politically tough issues.

On the deficit of 1,800 MLD treatment capacity of urban sewage (it is a gross underestimate) the only thing he has to offer is money: "There is adequate funding available to create additional treatment facilities under the National Mission Clean Ganga."

On under-utililization of existing sewage, he suggests that it is basically because lack of connection with the sewage and O&M expenses, so he offers relaxation of norms! Neither are really the key problems affecting existing STPs.
 
On persistently polluting industries, he only has a sermon to state government to strengthen enforcement mechanisms... such sermons have come and gone hundreds of times without any impact...

“...to attend to some of the institutional, administrative and financial problems that may be coming in the way of more effective implementation of pollution control and abatement measures", he asks the states to submit reports on urban and industrial pollution and than NGBRA can consider actions! He hints that it is well known what needs to be done, but clearly does not want to do anything...

And of course not a word on the issue of Dams, the biggest threat to the river and all the related problems... Not a word on addressing the governance issues... PM acknowledges, "We should remember that our efforts in the past have not been very successful." but the only thing on offer is "a renewed and sincere commitment in both thought and action to make a definite change in the situation". Unfortunately, in the entire speech there is nothing at all to suggest that he means what he says.

Also read reports:

Time running out for Ganga, PM wants states to do more

PM chairs third meeting of NGRBA


Comments

 

Other News

What really happened in ‘The Scam That Shook a Nation’?

The Scam That Shook a Nation By Prakash Patra and Rasheed Kidwai HarperCollins, 276 pages, Rs 399 The 1970s were a

Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure released

The final ‘Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure’ by ‘India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion and Development’ was released in New Delhi on Monday. The Task Force was led by the

How the Great War of Mahabharata was actually a world war

Mahabharata: A World War By Gaurang Damani Sanganak Prakashan, 317 pages, Rs 300 Gaurang Damani, a Mumbai-based el

Budget expectations, from job creation to tax reforms…

With the return of the NDA to power in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, all eyes are now on finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s full budget for the FY 2024-25. The interim budget presented in February was a typical vote-on-accounts, allowing the outgoing government to manage expenses in

How to transform rural landscapes, design 5G intelligent villages

Futuristic technologies such as 5G are already here. While urban users are reaping their benefits, these technologies also have a potential to transform rural areas. How to unleash that potential is the question. That was the focus of a workshop – “Transforming Rural Landscape:

PM Modi visits Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh in Moscow

Prime minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by president Vladimir Putin, visited the All Russian Exhibition Centre, VDNKh, in Moscow Tuesday. The two leaders toured the Rosatom Pavilion at VDNKh. The Rosatom pavilion, inaugurated in November 2023, is one of the largest exhibitions on the histo

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter