The IITians for Holy Ganga forum has strongly objected to the recent affidavit filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court stating that hydroelectric projects on the Ganga will be subjected to a 100-year old 1916 pact to ensure the natural flow of the river does not fall below 1000 cusecs.
The forum's president Yatinder Pal Singh Suri stated, "The Central Government is falling back on a century old document signed between the British-India Government and the princely States though a large number of cities and habitats have come up along the Ganga in the hilly and plain areas in the past 100 years.
"Free flow of water in the Ganga is destroyed in the reach downstream of a dam constructed for hydropower project and the intermittent discharge through the tail race of power station to the river causes further ecological problems. We suggest that a member from our forum, an expert faculty from IIT Kanpur and Roorkee together with an expert from the Swedish Government on natural water bodies management and the Central Water Commission chairman should be assigned to put their minds together and submit a proposal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti on the minimum water flow needed to ensure the natural harmony and meeting the demand for water."
Former chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board and the forum's spokesman Paritosh Tyagi said, "The present Government had come to power with a commitment for taking all possible measures to ensure continuous and unpolluted flow of the Ganga. The filing of the affidavit in the Supreme Court shows that the Government has no commitment to save the Ganga river and to make it pollution-free at the earliest.
As the Ganga is the life source of the region and also a powerful symbol of cultural and spiritual renewal, maintaining minimum ecological flow of the river ensuring water quality and environmentally sustainable development should be the aim of the Government. On the Ganga, 16 hydroelectric projects have been commissioned, 13 are under construction and 54 are proposed while on Alaknanda, six have been commissioned, eight are under construction and 24 are proposed."