Thaindian News

Agra, Jan 18 (IANS) Agra’s district magistrate and municipal commissioner led a host of officials to clean up the Balkeshwar Ghat along the Yamuna river but residents and environmentalists have called it a sham as the government doesn’t seem to check toxic industrial waste flowing into the river from several drains.
The clean-up programme Sunday saw District Magistrate M.K. Narayan, Municipal Commissioner Anand Vardhan and officials of the Yamuna Action Plan, Jal Nigam and half a dozen other departments join school children and youths of the National Cadet Corps to pick up polythene bags on the banks.

The Agra Municipal Corporation had provided 200-odd sanitary workers and the Agra Water Works provided 100 staffers to help the officials clean up the patch, which was brightly decorated with inspiring posters and banners put up by the NGOs.

But some residents present at the event say they were shocked that the polythene bags collected as part of the drive were dumped into a ditch dug up along the banks, even as district officials and Agra Mayor Anjula Singh took an oath to keep the river clean.

And ironically, adjacent to the theatre of action where officials posed for photographs, an open drain was emptying untreated toxic wastes from factories, but no official seemed to take steps to check the discharges.

“Can the river be cleaned by such symbolic gestures and why don’t these officials book all those who contaminate the water bodies and use rivers as dump yards?” remarked a resident of the city watching the event held by the state’s ministry of urban development.

“These officials are supposed to act and fine polluters. The district magistrate and the municipal commissioner have a set of laws that need to be implemented. Those who litter and throw garbage must be punished. Awareness programmes like these should be the work of NGOs and not of government agencies which should use legal instruments they have at their disposal,” Surendra Sharma, president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society, told IANS.

Three Yamuna Action Plans have been put into place but they have made no impact to the river’s health as the sewage treatment plants do not work, pumping stations are closed and drains are emptying tonnes of waste into the river, say activists.

“The last count that the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board made a few months ago said there were 19 drains coughing up sweage and waste from the city into the river,” said Hari Dutt Sharma, an eco-activist.

The Supreme Court had long ago directed district authorities to shift dairies from the city to the outskirts, provide squads of river police, and build dhobi ghats to prevent washermen polluting the river. Environmentalists have also been suggesting the use of aerators and desilting of the river. But the district authorities have done nothing so far.

“When the Yamuna water has already been declared unfit for any human activity, what is the point in building bathing ghats along the river? Who will come close to a stinking river?” wondered environmentalist Ravi Singh.