Bindal, Rispana streams included in Ganga basin

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 26

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has proceeded to earmark the Rispana and Bindal streams of the Doon valley as “falling under the Ganga basin”.

Members of the Doon-based student activist group, Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD), had called upon Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javdekar on March 30 and requested him to treat the two rivers as a part of the Ganga basin.

In a letter to the minister, they said “the Rispana and Bindal rivers provide 90 per cent of water supply to the Doon valley. Both are in an utter state of neglect due to constant encroachment, government neglect and vote bank politics. Both streams are eventual tributaries of the Yamuna and hence have their own importance.”

RN Jindal, Director of the National River Conservation Directorate, has written to the secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Redevelopment and Ganga Rejuvenation, while marking a copy to MAD’s founding president Abhijay Negi and the Director of the National Mission for Clean Ganga, Ministry of Water Resources, Redevelopment and Ganga rejuvenation, to respond to MAD’s letter submitted on March 30.

The MAD had pointed out that, “The then Union Cabinet Minister for Water Resources, Harish Rawat, had sanctioned a study to assess how these two streams could revive. The study report, conducted by the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee, has stated that the Rispana was a perennial stream. A sum of Rs 1 crore has been sought for advanced study to begin rejuvenation. We urge the ministry to undertake the revival study further with the NIH, Roorkee.”

The group had also urged the need of a government order to ban the riverbed construction and encroachment. The letter said, “Both the former Chief Minister and the Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly have committed to reviving the two streams. However, given pressure from local politicians, wrongful encroachments are being legitimised by the state policy. This is in gross violation of the Supreme Court orders in Hinch Lal Tiwari v. Kamla Devi 2001 6 SCC 496, Jagpal Singh v. State of Punjab 2011 11 SCC 396 among many others. We believe this is not unique to Uttarakhand and could also be happening elsewhere.”

MAD members had prepared four dossiers for consideration in their meeting with the Javdekar. The first pertained to city’s sanitation and Dehradun’s poor show in Swachh Bharat rankings. The second dossier pertained to revival of he Rispana and the Bindal. The third dossier pertained to the trend of reducing green spaces in eco-sensitive Doon Valley.

The fourth dossier pertained to the tea gardens of the Doon valley and the NEERI report titled ‘Carrying Capacity Based Developmental Planning of Doon Valley’.