The recent decision taken by the Bulandshahr-based village panchayat disallowing last rites to be performed on the banks of Ganga is encouraging. If all gram panchayats in the country work on the same lines, it will do yeoman service towards cleaning the river
Notwithstanding their regressive and reactionary decisions on women and other major issues, the recent decision taken by the Bulandshahr-based village panchayat can go a long way in cleaning the holy Ganga and other rivers of the country. The panchayat has decided that no last rites of the villagers will be allowed on the cremation grounds, situated on the banks of Ganga.
It has made clear that the deceased will be cremated in some part of the land or farm held by the family inside the village. Rather than immersing his last remains (ashes) in the Ganga, they will be buried in a corner or in the farm itself. There itself, the family will plant a sapling in the memory of the departed soul and take care of the sapling. It will stand in the field and inspire generations to come. It goes without saying that for all those who have been remotely concerned about the state of the Ganga, this decision is laudable and should inspire one and all to make the rivers clean.
In a written reply in the lok Sabha, Sanwar lal Jat, Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation project said that there are 1,649 gram panchayats along the Ganga and, by 2022, the entire stretch would be free of open defecation. He also informed the House that untreated sewage water goes into Ganga from 118 towns that are situated along the river. The Government would soon stop the flow of sewage water into the river.
In a 2,500 km journey through the Himalayas in Uttrakhand to the Bay of Bengal, Ganga flows through 66 districts, 118 towns and 1,657
gram panchayats.
One can find over 1,250 cremation grounds on its banks, one cremation ground every two kilometers. If on an average, even 10 people are cremated in one cremation ground daily, around 2,500 people are cremated daily on the banks of the Ganga. If we take into account, both north and south banks, the figure will touch to about 5,000 creamations on a daily basis. Multiplying it by 365, it will touch almost two million in a year. This apart, the remains of the departed soul, their cloths and other stuff too are dumped in the holy Ganga.
If all the gram panchayats take decision on lines of the panchayat of Bulandshahr, it would do yeoman service to Ganga. To recall, early this year, more than 100 decaying dead bodies surfaced in the Ganga near Pariyar between Kanpur and Unnao. The nation was shocked to hear that some communities immersed dead bodies in the river in the hope of salvation. Of course, such age-old practices should be curbed with iron hands to save the Ganga.
While the Ganga is arguably the most sacred river for the Hindus, it is also perhaps the most abused river as well. It is also a lifeline to crores of Indians, who live along its course and depend on it for their daily needs. It is worshiped as the goddess Ganga. Still, it has turned into a filthy gutter at various points.
Ganga is not only considered to be holy in the Gangetic belt, but is worshiped by all Hindus across the world. Earlier this week, Mata Amritanandamayi Math of Kerala donated `100 crore for the clean Ganga project. This shows the sentimental attitude of people of India towards the holy river.
Agreed, the Modi Government is determined to make Ganga clean before 2018, it is the duty of every Indian to contribute in whichever way possible, to make it clean. This writer hails from Patna and can still remember the festival of Chhath, when he used to accompany his mother to the Ganga for puja. Those were the days when the Ganga used to be neat and clean. During the later years, it became filthy for more than one factor and because of the apathy of all of us. Honestly, the writer really feels sad to see Ganga now in Patna. It stinks. It is in a bad shape.
It is believed that the worst stretches of the Ganga are between Kanpur and Varanasi and then again in West Bengal beyond Dhakineswar. It is in the stretch from Kanpur-Unnao to Rae Bareli to Allahabad and Varanasi that the Ganga ceases to be a river and becomes a flowing body of filth. Ganga’s journey through Uttar Pradesh — from Kanpur to Rae Bareli and then Allahabad and Varanasi via Mirzapur is shocking to say the least.
Ganga does not get the chance to assimilate the waste poured into it from cities and industries. It gets some breather in Allahabad, when some clean water is added by the Yamuna. It helps it to recover to some extent. Then as it moves towards Varanasi, sewage is poured in again. Ganga dies again.
This speaks volumes about the hypocrisy of ours that Ganga becomes filthy in those places where it is worshiped the most. Well, the writer is talking about Uttar Pradesh. The Central Pollution Control Board reported two years back in 2013 that Uttar Pradesh contributes 76 per cent of the Ganga’s pollution load. Yet, the Ganga captures our imagination. The river is believed by most of the Indians to have the capacity to wash away one’s sins and purify the living and the dead.
It is really mind-boggling that over 70 per cent of the sewage that flows into the Ganga is untreated. Ganga becomes a carrier of untreated industrial waste, garbage, agricultural and municipal waste. Sadly, now the Ganga is not fit for bathing, forget about drinking or farming. Successive Governments since 1985, have launched various schemes and programmes to make Ganga normal. Still, it remains unclean and bad.
More to the horror, over the years, many cities, residential and industrial areas have come up close to Ganga, these cities have grown without planning. Can you imagine most do not have an underground drainage net work. And will you believe that even in Allahabad and Varanasi, 80 per cent of the areas are without sewers! There are no power to run treatment plants; bankrupt municipalities and water utilities have no money to pay for operations.
Despite spending several thousand crores since 1985, the nation has failed in its efforts to clean the Ganga. It is a national shame. In fact, in the three decades that have gone by, the Ganga has taken in more waste than it did before 1985. It is a well-known fact that Ganga has reached to such a state due to callousness of all. Will we ever wake up for the sake of Ganga, which we worshipIJ The Bulandshahr panchayat has shown us a road map to clean Ganga. If we fail now, it might be too late to save it.
(The writer is a Rajya Sabha MP)