The ‘waterman of India’, Rajendra Singh said that though Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called himself the ‘son of Ganga’ and had vowed to clean up the national river and ensure its uninterrupted flow, nothing has been done in this regard by the Central Government in the past four and a half years. In the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, where the river originates, the situation is alarming with unregulated dumping of debris from the all-weather road project creating conditions which could lead to a disaster much worse than the one experienced in 2013. Singh said this while addressing the media here along with former chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat on Wednesday.
Singh said that the Himalaya and Ganga are facing serious trouble. “In 2014, the PM had said that he was a son of Ganga and had vowed to make the river clean and ensure its unrestricted flow. In these four and a half years, I have travelled twice from the origin of the Ganga to the point where it merges into the sea. I have not seen one new work started by the government for the improvement of the Ganga’s condition. The Centre created a Ganga Rejuvenation ministry and launched Namami Gange mission but even the works dating back to the term of the National Ganga River Basin Authority have remained incomplete. Yesterday I was with Union minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadakari and his officials but they had nothing to show when I asked whether a single river had been rejuvenated. Gadkari assured me that works related to the Ganga would be completed by March 2019 but I know this cannot be done. The previous union minister too was not allowed to work effectively and I know that Gadkari too has his limitations. Further, the manner in which the debris excavated in the all-weather road project in Uttarakhand are being dumped in a way without construction of a wall to hold the same from ending in the rivers will lead to a disaster worse than the 2013 disaster.” Stating that the Ganga is in the ‘Intensive Care Unit’ here, he said that like the 2009 historical notification for protection of the Bhagirathi, same should be done for the Alaknanda and Mandakini rivers. He said that if the state asks him, he is ready to work for rejuvenation of any two tributaries of the Ganga in Uttarakhand. When asked about the government’s Rispana revival efforts, he said that he had told chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat about encroachment in the catchment area, pollution and over extraction of water being the three major problems afflicting the river. However, nothing concrete has been done to tackle this.
Refraining from making any political comments, former CM Harish Rawat said that the issue of water is the biggest challenge facing the world. In India, the brunt of global warming is being faced by the Himalaya and efforts are needed to tackle such environmental challenges, he added