Issuring an ultimatum to the State Government in order to stop the proposed elevated road projects along Rispana and Bindal rivers, the Dehradun based student activist group Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD) stated that they will be approaching the Uttarakhand High court against this project in two months. No such project should be planned before ensuring the actual revival of the rivers. The group has decided to start a signature campaign for starting a city wide movement to mobilise Doonites, especially the youth for the cause of actual rejuvenation of the rivers. Addressing media persons on Sunday, founding president of MAD, Abhijay Negi said, “We have been part of the positive steps taken by the Government to rejuvenate Rispana and we still support them if their intentions are indeed to revive the rivers. However in a survey we conducted about three weeks ago we found that only five percent of the 60,000 saplings planted as part of Rispana revival effort last year have survived. The Government keeps making tall claims about the rejuvenation of the rivers but the ground reality shows zero results. Saplings were planted during the Harela festival which ended up being just another PR activity and regular inspection to check on those plants was never ensured.” He further added, “The dumping of garbage in the Rispana and Bindal rivers has only increased. The sewer lines still lay on the Rispana riverbed and there has been a rise in encroachments on the banks of both the Rispana and Bindal rivers. For the past eight years, we have been played as a football from one department to another. From Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) and Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) to Irrigation department, our questions are being dodged at every level.
In fact few months ago we spoke with Dehradun mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ in order to seek support from MCD - a JCB and some manpower to clean the Rispana belt in a specific area. He did not say no to the proposal but told us to speak with the councilor concerned. The councillor again was selective about his area. The point is their mentality is that they do not want to work and they won’t let us work either.”He said, “The 2014 report of the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) confirmed that Rispana and Bindal rivers are in fact perennial and later merge with Ganga river also.
They should be brought under the Namami Gange project as these two rivers are a major factor responsible for bringing down the water quality of Ganga.