Green activists root for a monitoring commission to ensure that our rivers are effectively protected
Green activists are elated that the National Green Tribunal has issued notices to Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, and Union Ministry of Water Resources with regard to the land mafia's reckless encroachment on the floodplains of Yamuna and Hindon.
This was in response to an application filed by environmentalists. The plea states: “The river beds, considered highly eco-fragile, have been usurped by land mafia in connivance with administration officials. Colonies have come up on the riverbeds”. The petition cites a media report about an estimated 1,618 hectares of the Yamuna flood plain having been grabbed by the land mafia, along 30 km of the river as it flows through Noida. Encroachments include farmhouses, homes, schools, crusher and hot-mix plants, concrete ready-mix and quartz-washing plants, etc. Thousands of hectares have similarly been encroached upon in cities along the Yamuna: Delhi, Faridabad, Mathura and Agra. The petition singles out the Delhi Government for foisting encroachments via Commonwealth Games Village and DTC Bus Depot “on the eco-sensitive Yamuna banks”.
Illegal plots in the flood plains areas are being sold with the connivance of Government functionaries, with registration and mutation being undertaken. Though concerned agencies at the Centre and in States have not granted environmental clearance, which clearly has not even been sought, such land grab continues to occur with impunity. Encroachments by colonisers in Faridabad, Agra and Mathura have increased the toxic pollution load. As a result, aquatic species have almost been decimated.
The petitioners want a monitoring commission to be set up, to ensure that provisions under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 for protecting rivers be implemented in a transparent way as per the deadline. Applications or appeals are to be disposed of within six months of filing.
This is one side of the issue of development. The other side has bankers and tycoons meeting Union Minister for Finance P Chidambaram with their litany of complaints concerning environmental hurdles, land acquisition, coal linkage and banks' reluctance to restructure loans, thereby stalling projects. The high-powered meet was attended by the Minister and Financial Services secretary Ravi Takru, the business sector was represented by Mr Anil Ambani, Mr Ajit Gulabchand, Mr Prashant Ruia, Mr Kumar Managalam Birla, Mr Madhu Kannan and heads of public-sector banks. There are almost 350 such projects facing impediments. Environmental clearance is seen to be the main obstruction. Mr Chidambaram will now coordinate with different Ministries to get road blocks removed.
So, on the one hand, the Green Tribunal, set up on October 18, 2010, under National Green Tribunal Act, as well as law courts are intervening in support of conservation causes; on the other, corporates, realtors, land mafia and a chain of beneficiaries cite the need for high growth as the rationale for pummelling the Government into submission.
So long as population continues to explode, with India's numbers in 2011 totalling 1,241,491,960, as per World Bank estimates, high growth gains will be out-paced by the astronomical increase in people. The Congress-led UPA Government has completely failed to address this problem during its two successive tenures, since 2004.
It is a colossal failure, but quite understandable in view of obsession with high economic growth trajectories and policies, and freebies for select vote banks. These formulae for disaster, vesting in the unlikely reconciliation of the capitalist module of development with the socialist welfare state, do not seem to have factored in family planning programmes, to be implemented on an emergency basis.
India is reported to harbour over 17.5 per cent of the entire population of the world. The 2001 census findings indicate that 72.2 per cent of the people are found in an estimated 6,38,000 villages, which figure very low on policymakers' list of priorities in planning since metropolises seem to have first right over funds and resources.
Mark the disproportionate amount of finance allotted to Delhi for upgradation of infrastructure and creation of amenities, geared to hosting of the CWG in October 2010. As per census data, 27.8 per cent comprises urban dwellers. Since policymakers and enforcers are not serious about curbing population growth, India is expected to beat its giant neighbour China, which has enforced the ‘one child rule’, as the world's most populous country by 2025. Electoral compulsions ensure that the small family unit, projected as the ideal by the slogans “Hum do, hamaare do” and “Hum do hamaara ek”, has been shelved. The more the better appears to be the current norm since that translates into larger vote-banks and recipients of Government largesse.
China's policy dates back to 1979. It generally applies to urban Han Chinese, and is credited with reducing population by about 300 million in the first two decades. However, after the Congress's aborted sterilisation programme in the 1970s, the subject is taboo for politicos.