Events & Issues
New Delhi, 15 February, 2017
Narmada Seva Yatra
FRAUD BEING PLAYED
OUT
By Proloy Bagchi
Religious sentiments are frequently used by political
parties in power to garner votes at the polls. This has happened more in BJP
regimes than ever before. Hence, one witnesses a series of religious festivals
that are hyped up and celebrated with fanfare with generous inputs from the
government treasury.
Narmada Seva Yatra is one such hyped up campaign
supposedly to save the highly venerated River Narmada that flows through Madhya
Pradesh for a little more than a 1000 km of its highly polluted course of over 1300
km – down to the Arabian Sea in the Gujarat coast. This is claimed to be the
world’s biggest campaign of this nature for conservation of a river.
After holding the Simhast
Mela, which is in fact the 12-yearly Kumbh
in Ujjain last
year, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan probably could not find an issue
which he could hype up involving the public. He seemed to have found Narmada Seva Yatra a good medium to earn
encomiums. This is nothing but an attempt at a kind of alchemy of Hindu piety
with river conservation.
Surprisingly, however, the same Government didn’t move even
an inch after Anil Madhav Dave, an MP of BJP from the State and now Union
Environment Minister toured up and down the banks of the same river a few years
ago and not only briefed the Government about what all he found but also wrote
a tome on his travels. Narmada – they call it Ma Narmada – is as polluted as any other river in India. It gets
industrial effluents as also sewage from the cities and towns on its banks.
Snatches of Dave’s report were published in newspapers.
Time was when it was pristine – but no, such is not the case
any longer. And this fact has not been hidden from the Government, which has
been aware of the progressive pollution of the River. One recalls an important
minister found dharmashalas in
Amarkantak, the town at the source of Narmada,
discharging their sewage into the River. At that time, neither this minister
nor the Government ever thought of saving at least the source of the venerated
river from pollution. But now without any seeming provocation the Government
launched the Seva Yatra to build
awareness about the need for its conservation. The intention was perhaps
totally different; maybe, to try and remain in public eye and win public
approbation for (non-existent) commitment to the Holy River.
And hopefully, the approbation might eventually get converted into votes.
That this is a fraud being played out has apparently been
missed by the people at large. A look at the “key facts” of the campaign would
reveal its hollowness. Among what is indicated to be done are: “All the
villages along the river will have Narmada
Seva Samitis, which will take follow-up action on measures to be undertake
for its preservation: “Trees will be planted along the banks of Narmada.
Participation of public and society will be ensured. It will cover over 1900
kms in 16 districts; “Districts and villages along the banks will have the
facility to treat sewage water before it discharges into the river (sic); “The yatra holds religious, social and
scientific importance of the river to create awareness about its conservation”
(whatever that means!). Further, the journey of around 118 days will be
monitored by a core team of 50 persons. “The yatra will comprise of (sic) workshops
and public meetings.”
Various aspects of conservation of the river have been kept
delightfully vague. For instance, the Seva
Samitis are expected to take follow-up action on measures to be taken for
the river’s “preservation”, but it has not been indicated what those are or would
be. It has also been indicated that sewage will be discharged into the river
after treatment by sewage treatment plants (STPs) but no one knows when this
will be done. STPs in the villages and towns on the banks of the river are
mostly conspicuous by their absence. No time frame has been indicated about
having the STPs up and running. It has conveniently remained unmentioned.
The journey of 118 days down the banks of the river will be
monitored by a “core team” of 50 persons but the statement is blank about what
the monitoring would be about and who would be included in the team, which is
supposed to be a “core team” but one does not know of what. The whole drill doesn’t make any sense,
particularly when it emanates from the Government.
Of all the things, the biggest omission is the total absence
of any mention of sand mining in the river. Narmada
is being stripped for years of its sands in a big way and this is what is
destroying the river. A report recently had said that even mid-stream
sand-mining is being carried out which can severely damage the river’s bed. The
mining is so rampant that the courts have had occasions to opine in the matter.
The Government, however, is procrastinating by talking of
inviting experts to come and tell it about the impact of sand mining on the
river. It has departments of water resources and environment working for it
which should be aware of the effects of uncontrolled sand mining on rivers. If
not that, there is a huge amount of literature available on the subject
including a large number of research papers by Indians. And yet, the Government
has been using the ruse of inviting experts and consulting them.
The fact, however, appears to be the involvement of
political biggies in sand mining in Narmada.
For a long time a rumour has been floating around in the State about the
involvement of Chief Minister and his family in Narmada
sand mining. Recently, the Congress has made a direct allegation against him about
the matter with photographic evidence. It seems his close relatives are
indulging in sand mining and probably, hence, the procrastinations. Sand is big
money and clamping down on sand mining would hurt his family and others. It
would hit the builders’ lobby as well, which also distributes big money to
politicians and bureaucrats.
Besides, how can one expect this Government to conserve
Narmada when it has not been able to properly conserve the relatively much
smaller sheet of water, viz. Upper Lake in the
State capital that serves drinking water to 40% of the city’s populace? Experts
of the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology of Ahmedabad, who were
asked by the Government to suggest ways to conserve the Lake,
submitted their report in 2013 but the same has not seen the light of day so
far.
When the Government and its allied agencies have not shown
any interest in conserving the two rivers that feed the lake and a bunch of
others that once used to flow through the Capital how can it be expected to
save Narmada? For want of functioning STPs raw
sewage is still flowing into the lake through as many as eight drains.
Constructing STPs for all discharges from the towns and villages on the Narmada banks is, therefore, just tall talk signifying
nothing.
The Narmada Seva Yatra
is, therefore, not for serving the interests of the Holy River;
it is only to hood wink the people. It is, to repeat, a fraud that is being
played out on the people. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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