A younger cousin of mine remarked that the Government of the day is so serious about cleaning the Ganga. I didn’t know how to respond. At first I thought he was pulling my leg but when he said it seriously and said so I had no other choice but to call him on it. But rather than just telling him, I thought it would be wiser to share some of the links, news in the media and ask if there is actually any work happening on the ground.
The Ganga as it looks today – Copyright – Down To Earth.
The above picture has been taken from the article Khumb’s over, now God save the Ganga which is written by DTE . This illustrates how the tanneries were closed just for the Khumb, for political mileage and nothing else. This is when there had been two Supreme Court judgements to close Polluting Industries for good and still nothing has been done by the present Govt.
And this is just list of the woes. The real story is that one Clean Ganga activist died and one is missing and the Government prefers to look the other way . The Clean Ganga Panel has met only twice and spent only 18% of the funds have been utilized according to another media report. There are more than dozen or more litigations pending in the Supreme Court about Clean Ganga where the responder is the Govt. of India and the Government has not even given them a single hearing over the last 5 years.
I just came from Uttarakhand, near Nainital . While going, I saw that the National Highway was an off-roader’s delight. Upon asking the locals and the driver it became clear the road doesn’t have any grip, it is landslide prone because of beserk construction. This has been shared and told clearly in an International Journal Science Direct, June 2014 as well as a CNN report which says the same. The same is also said in Jagran Josh , a local newspaper as well.
Experiences in the community 