Centre should bear cost of Ganga cleanup: Harish Rawat

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 27

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has demanded that the cost of complete cleanup of river Ganga should be borne by the Central Government.

He was speaking at the Namami Gange programme held in New Delhi, which was presided over by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on Thursday evening.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat said compensation must be provided to Uttarakhand for its economic growth in order to conserve natural resources.

He demanded that the repair of river Ganga- related infrastructure damage caused due to the natural disaster must also be borne by the Central Government.

He said that minimum ecological flow norms must be implemented on priority since their absence was limiting several development programmes and while planning solutions for cleanup of Ganga river, the sentiments of the locals must also be considered.

Highlighting that the deposition of silt in the river during rains was a major cause of floods, the chief minister said that the right to remove silt from river beds should be given to the state government. He said that sewerage treatment plants and effluent treatment plants should be developed near cities and rivers.

Along with this, effective laws and guidelines had to be made for control of pollution, he said.

Rawat said that the state has implemented several water conservation programmes, including a scheme to award gram panchayats that construct water recharging structures. There is also proposal to develop one lakh water bodies in forest areas, village areas and on barren lands. He said that if Uttarakhand could accomplish so much, it was obvious that the Central Government would be able to achieve better results.

The CM said that water levels of river Ganga and Yamuna could not be increased until water conservation was taken up and no cleanliness drive would be sufficient unless water availability was increased. The state government had to increase its hydel power capacity so that Uttarakhand could be self-reliant and produce surplus electricity.

It was recalled that at a meeting held on November 1, 2010, by the Ganga River Basin Authority, a decision was taken to close down the Lauhari-Nagapala project, Pala Maneri project and Bhairoghati project. He told the PM that the water conservation programmes, river development and Ganga conservation programmes were commendable.

He added that the declaration of Bhagirathi Eco Sensitive Zone had limited hydroelectric projects above the capacity of 2 MW. According to the notification, the state cannot commission 16 hydel projects of 1743 MW. Consequently, the state will suffer a loss of Rs 3581 crore annually. The government also had to call off 34 projects of 4069 MW due to the decision of the Supreme Court as well as declaration of eco sensitive zone from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi.

He said that due to deficiency of power, Uttarakhand was purchasing 800 MW electricity worth Rs 1000 crore.

If utilisation of hydel projects could be optimised, Uttarakhand could produce as much electricity as Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. He demanded that the state be compensated for conservation of river Ganga. Also, the projects of less than 25 MW in eco-sensitive zones which do not possess any threat to ecology must be allowed to continue.

The declaration of 4197.59 sq km catchment areas between Gaumukh and Uttarkashi as eco-sensitive zone had affected the development of the state. Along with this, the notification was made without consulting the locals, thus indicating that the interest of the locals was not given any importance. This would cause migration to cities, he said.

He suggested that the 42 km stretch from Gaumukh to Dharali near Harsil must be excluded from the eco-sensitive zone. The boundary of the eco-sensitive zone must be till 5 metres above high flood level of Bhagirathi river. The decision on establishing an ecological flow must be done at the earliest.

The CM said that the present ratio of projects of the Ganga River Basin Authority between the Centre and state was 70:30. The maximum area of Uttarakhand was hilly, thus causing problems for development. Thus the cost of projects by Ganga River Basin Authority must be borne completely by the Central Government.

He added that the state’s local bodies did not have adequate means to generate financial resources. As such, grants for operation of pollution control plants along rivers needed to be provided for 15 instead of the present 5 years.

The cost of all repair work of projects damaged by the natural disaster must be borne by Ganga River Basin Authority. As many as 16 projects of GRBA were approved for the state, out of which two are complete and eight were under construction.

Decisions taken by the GRBA had a long term negative impact on small states, particularly as they did not have many resources.