Among other things, Friday also marked the start of the Ganga Swachchhta Pakhwada- a fortnight meant to be dedicated to the cleaning of the Ganga river. If the establishment is to be believed, this is only one of the many initiatives underway in the States including Uttarakhand to achieve the desired level of improvement and development in various spheres. And, though one is generally skeptical about Governmental claims, it is true that various measures are being undertaken at the national level and in Uttarakhand which could be viewed as progressive. Take the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) for example.
While some opine that more funds have been expended and comparatively little has been achieved under this mission, there are those who believe that the government has adopted an approach to systematise the planning and execution of holistic measures to ensure a long term solution to the problem of contamination of the national river.
It is not as if the people have not been influenced into remembering the basics of our civilisational thought which made us respect the environment and utilise it judiciously. At the Kharkari ghat along the Ganga in Haridwar where funeral pyres are lit, those who conduct the last rites caution people against throwing more than the minimal remnants in the Ganga as observed in the rituals. Even the tonsuring of the mourners’ scalps is carried out using only water without any shaving cream or chemicals lest it ‘contaminate’ the ritual or the Ganga. However, just a stone’s throw away from the ghat is the open channel of sewage and sundry muck from nearby settlements draining into the Ganga.
A similar situation can be seen when it comes to the polythene ban in Uttarakhand. The state government had in 2012 banned polythene across the state. After a few measures for enforcement of the ban in the initial phase by some diligent officials, the prohibition fizzled out due to factors like public apathy, lack of political will and the interference of various parties involved.
Some years later, during March 2017, while hearing on a public interest litigation, the High Court of Uttarakhand in Nainital had directed the state government to shut down polythene and plastic manufacturing related industries in the state.
Hearing on the case, the High Court had also directed the state to conduct stringent checking for polythene along the state borders and to set up crusher units for destroying plastic bottles and other polythene items at places with 3,000 population. Efforts are still underway to ensure the enforcement of this ban in the state.
The authorities have set up teams which are taking action and penalising offenders to ensure that the polythene ban becomes actually effective on the ground from March 31. Lakhs of rupees have been collected in penalties and quantities of the banned items seized by official teams in Dehradun alone. However, even a casual stroll in the bazaar will reveal that most shopkeepers and vendors along with their customers have continued to treat the polythene ban as something that exists mainly on paper. To top it all, those who habitually violate the polythene ban and other civic regulations are among the most vocal when it comes to blaming the authorities for lack of civic sanitation in the town.
Another recent development further exposed the selective approach that society has become used to with some political encouragement. The high court termed unconstitutional the horizontal reservation in government jobs for some statehood activists. In this case, the petitioner had stated that since the statehood movement was a mass movement, providing benefits like job reservations only to a select few was not fair. Not surprisingly, demonstrations are still underway by various groups and ‘activists’ seeking various benefits for those identified as statehood activists by the government.
One is likely to wonder why such activists are protesting mainly in support of their demands for apparent personal gains instead of focusing their efforts on demanding solutions to migration and other issues which had fuelled the demand for creation of a separate state.
Another major subject marked by such contradictions is the ‘ambitious’ all-weather road project currently underway in Uttarakhand. Thousands of green trees have been axed and mountains have been cut to widen the road network leading to the Char Dham shrines. Activists, community members and scientists are not happy with the way the project is being executed. They warn that apart from causing major environmental damage, the manner in which the mountains are being cut will ensure landslides and other problems in the coming decades. I will list one last example- that of the Kedarnath reconstruction project which is also being monitored closely by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Apart from those who believe that the spiritual aspects of the ancient shrine should not be shrouded by modern additions, even some members of the scientific fraternity state that their suggestions regarding reconstruction at Kedarnath were ignored by the authorities.
This reminds me of an ascetic in Kedarnath who had told a photographer friend a couple of years after the 2013 disaster that if the humans don’t mend their ways, “abhi Shivji ka damru bajna baki hai”.
What the mendicant meant was that if we continue to work against Nature, the resulting destruction could be worse than the disaster experienced in 2013. Going by past record, there seems to be a proclivity to take effective corrective action sincerely after the damage has been done.
And even then the efficacy of such actions remains questionable in some cases. That is because even the most ambitious of projects fail to achieve their aim if the ground realities are ignored and public attitudes are not changed for the better.
So while the range of developmental works continue, the prudent will keep an ear out for Shiva’s damru.