“In the name of rejuvenation of Ganga, only beautification of ghats is being done, while actual cleaning and continuity of Ganga is still a far dream.” – Dr Rajendra Singh
Magsaysay award winner and “waterman of India” Rajendra Singh on Wednesday (Jan. 9) said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to fulfil his promise of cleaning the Ganga. Speaking to reporters at the Calcutta Press Club, Singh said, “PM has not done anything what he promised. We wanted and he had promised a clean Ganga but that never happened. Its water is full of pollutants from the city.”
Singh was in Kolkata in connection with the Ganga Sadbhavna Yatra, which is aimed at creating awareness on the need to clean up the river.
“What Modi is doing now is a corporate-driven democracy. People were arrested for throwing flowers in the Ganga, whereas millions of tons of effluents from industries are dumped with impunity,” said Singh.
He said the Ganga had been sent to the ICU and that projects such as Namami Ganga were unable to clean the river. “In the name of rejuvenation of Ganga, only beautification of ghats is being done, while actual cleaning and continuity of Ganga is still a far dream,” he added.
The Yatra covered a distance of 2,500 km across Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand and Kolkata. During the 111-day journey, people and communities along the banks of the river were made aware of its importance. – The Indian Express, 10 January 2019
Filed under: india | Tagged: ganga, ganges, rajendra singh, river pollution |
BHARATA BHARATI 
there is an injunction ( i don’t remember whether this is a Vedic injunction or from Smriti ) n o t e v e n t o s p i t into any body of flowing water – and the people of this punyabhumi have degenerated to such a low level that they let all dirty things to be spat into the holiest of their rivers – the river whose banks are likened to Vaikuntha
and whom Bhupen ji exhorted to give us another son like Bhishma
we can only pray to Lord S’iva to take her back to his jatajoota.
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66 of 97 towns along Ganga have at least one drain flowing into the river – Sowmiya Ashok – The Indian Express – 11 Jan 2019
About 78 per cent of towns in West Bengal along the river Ganga have nullahs (drains) flowing directly into the river, a third party inspection of all 97 Ganga towns across five states has revealed. Overall, 66 of the 97 towns had at least one nullah draining into the Ganga, 31 of those were in West Bengal. West Bengal has the largest chunk of towns (40) along the river, followed by Uttar Pradesh (21), Bihar (18), Uttarakhand (16) and Jharkhand (2).
The assessment undertaken by the Quality Council of India over a period of six weeks focused on four major priority areas for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs — overall cleanliness, solid waste management services, nullahs and screens, and availability of a municipal solid waste plant in the town. The survey was carried out between November 1 and December 15, 2018.
The report points out that only 19 towns across the Ganga basin had a municipal solid waste plant within the town, and in 33 towns, assessors found solid waste floating on at least one of the ghats of the town. “72 towns had old and legacy dumpsites as well as garbage vulnerable points in the vicinity of the ghats,” the report states.
In Uttar Pradesh, 13 towns, including Prayagraj, Ramnagar, Varanasi and Kanpur, were found to have nullahs discharging directly into the river. Ten towns in Uttarakhand, including Haridwar and Rishkesh, had a similar issue. The assessors also found shortfalls in containing garbage dumping sites which were found to be “vulnerable points” near ghats where wind displaced the solid waste onto the river in some instances. This was the case in 17 towns in Bihar and 34 towns in West Bengal. In several instances across the states, it was found that dumping sites were close to the ghats.
In Bihar, 56 per cent towns have drains near the river and “all these towns are discharging the nullahs directly into the river Ganga, whereas there were no screens installed at the nullahs”, the report states. In West Bengal, the report states, “three percent towns have screens installed at the nullah and in 3% towns it was found that screens are choked with solid waste”.
In a stocktaking workshop where the report was presented, state in-charges were given a time limit of February 2019 to achieve 100 per cent source segregation. National Mission for Clean Ganga director general Rajiv Ranjan Mishra said his team will do an assessment by mid-March.
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There are conflicting news reports on the cleaning of the Ganga. The Government spokesmen say the river is nearly clean and that the process will be completed by March, but the leading authority on the country’s rivers, Dr Rajendra Singh, says virtually nothing has been done except show projects like cleaning the ghats. We are going with Dr Singh as he has no reason to mislead the public.
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