All talk and no act at Ganga meet Another river board member may quit as one more meet ends inconclusively

All talk and no act at Ganga meet

Another river board member may quit as one more meet ends inconclusively

The much-awaited meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) on Tuesday, which took place only under pressure from activists and media, came a copper with no seemingly decisive action plan or even a date for the next meeting. Voicing disappointment over such lack of “sense of urgency” in saving the River Ganga, NGRBA member Rashid Hyatt Siddiqui said he would most probably not continue in the panel anymore as he is not hopeful of any concrete action. “It was third meeting in the last three years. It was a very general meeting where no commitment was made. There seems to be no sense of urgency in the mind of people (government). I am not very hopeful …. I am just waiting and most probably will not continue,” a disappointed Siddiqui told DNA. “Ganga was just declared as national river. Jo puraani baatein thi wohi discuss hui (We discussed the issues which were already there). Everyone said they are committed to cleaning work … everyone talks but I have not heard anyone starting some programme for cleaning work. Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna defended dams being built on Ganga in his state stating they are very important. Actually the problem is political,” he said. In his address to the meeting, Siddiqui said: “It seems that NGRBA itself is not taking any decisions … work is just happening through the National River Conservation Directorate [which is under the ministry of environment and forests]. There seems to be no special efforts.” The NGRBA was formed in early 2009 after protests that Ganga Action Plan [Phase I] failed to clean up the river. Since then, only two meetings had taken place with the last one happening in November 2010. Due to such neglect, three non-governmental NGRBA members including Siddiqui, had last month tendered their resignation to the prime minister Manmohan Singh. But the resignation was not accepted. Tuesday’s meeting was apparently a result of pressure created due to 80-year-old noted environmentalist GD Agrawal fast and resignation of three of its members. The meeting which was chaired by the prime minister. Admitting that their past efforts have not been very successful, Singh said saving River Ganga is a top priority, He, however, said: “We must find the right balance between the need for environmental and ecological conservation of the Ganga and its basin on the one hand and the imperatives of growth and development on the other.”