And dirty flows the Yamuna
7 Dec 2012 11:31 PM GMT
That the Yamuna river continues to be polluted comes as no surprise. Many thousands of crores of rupees have been spent over the last several years by this congress-led UPA government for cleaning it and for the maintenance of the river, particularly near major cities like New Delhi.
However, there is no concrete evidence of any progress in the river cleansing projects. Where these large sums of money have gone remains a mystery. If one goes by the reports of the Central Pollution Control Board, the enormous sums of money spent on the control of pollution have been entirely wasted. Why this should be the case is not entirely clear. Since the coming into power of the Congress-led UPA, the government of India has set up a gargatuan machinery both at the central and state levels to study and control pollution in the river Yamuna which continues to be among one of India’s sacred rivers.
The government has even set up a new authority for administering the cleansing of the river. This new administrative structure has been headed by men and women who are supposedly eminent or experts in the field of the cleansing of river pollution. Yet these is no outcome from these projects and the new pollution control structure remains a dead duck and these instrumentalities of goverment seem not to be functioning at all.
The river remains nearly as filthy and polluted as it ever was, if not in a worse condition. This is most surprising. Nearly each year the government of India announces, with much fanfare, new projects for the cleansing of the river. Every now and then it announces the success of its programmes for removing pollution.
The situation is particularly bad in areas in and around New Delhi. The city was given large amounts of funds for the cleansing of the river in the name of the Commonwealth Games. There was even a project for the development of the river banks along the city of New Delhi.
Yet, nothing seems to have happened and there is no accounting of the funds spent for these projects. The river around Delhi is as polluted as ever and the people in and around Delhi continue to drink filthy and polluted water. All the water drinking projects in the city seem to be at a standstill and people all over the city continue to face water shortage despite these projects which were linked to the provision of clean drinking water to the city by the Shiela Dikshit government.
However, there is no concrete evidence of any progress in the river cleansing projects. Where these large sums of money have gone remains a mystery. If one goes by the reports of the Central Pollution Control Board, the enormous sums of money spent on the control of pollution have been entirely wasted. Why this should be the case is not entirely clear. Since the coming into power of the Congress-led UPA, the government of India has set up a gargatuan machinery both at the central and state levels to study and control pollution in the river Yamuna which continues to be among one of India’s sacred rivers.
The government has even set up a new authority for administering the cleansing of the river. This new administrative structure has been headed by men and women who are supposedly eminent or experts in the field of the cleansing of river pollution. Yet these is no outcome from these projects and the new pollution control structure remains a dead duck and these instrumentalities of goverment seem not to be functioning at all.
The river remains nearly as filthy and polluted as it ever was, if not in a worse condition. This is most surprising. Nearly each year the government of India announces, with much fanfare, new projects for the cleansing of the river. Every now and then it announces the success of its programmes for removing pollution.
The situation is particularly bad in areas in and around New Delhi. The city was given large amounts of funds for the cleansing of the river in the name of the Commonwealth Games. There was even a project for the development of the river banks along the city of New Delhi.
Yet, nothing seems to have happened and there is no accounting of the funds spent for these projects. The river around Delhi is as polluted as ever and the people in and around Delhi continue to drink filthy and polluted water. All the water drinking projects in the city seem to be at a standstill and people all over the city continue to face water shortage despite these projects which were linked to the provision of clean drinking water to the city by the Shiela Dikshit government.
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