How The Gujarat Judiciary Is Rescuing A River !
BY R.K.MISRA
…..And quiet
flows the Sabarmati , a river that became a sterling symbol of India’s struggle
for freedom and its folklore through association with the Mahatma and his
ashram.
Inspired by the
riverfront development of the Thames in London, its 11.5km frontage passing
through Ahmedabad turned into Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s Rs 12,00 crore swan song sonata before he
left to take charge of the country in 2014. As happens most of the time, lost
in the glitter and glitz of an urban showcase edifice was the soul and
substance of the river and its waters. That was, until a wakeup call came from
the Central Pollution and Control Board(CPCB) which had ranked it as the second
most polluted river in the country in its report of 2022. Lots of high pitched
wailing and empty ‘faffing’ later, the Gujarat High Court stepped in.
One often
wonders what would be the fate of the average citizen were it not for the
softly soothing but firmly determined- this far and no further- redeeming stop sign of the Indian judiciary,
even in its horrendously overburdened state. And thereby hangs a tale.
The Sabarmati is
a rain-fed river which originates from the Aravalli hills in Rajasthan and
meanders through Ahmedabad to ends up in
the Bay of Khambat (Cambay of old) and melt into the Arabian sea after a 371 km
journey. It would remain partially dry
for most part of the year, that is until
it was linked up with water from the Narmada canal, upstream of Ahmedabad.
Deliberately forgotten was that Gujarat had fought its entire case for 139
metres height of the Narmada dam to take waters to Kutch and Saurashtra and not
splurge it enroute.
Though the
development of a waterfront along the banks of the Sabarmati river in
Ahmedabad had been proposed in the sixties, it was only in May 1997 that the
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation launched a Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV)- the
Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited(SRFDCL) under section
149(3) of the Indian Companies Act,1956.The aim was to provide a green lung
,re-connect the city with the river and positively transform the neglected
aspect of the riverfront.
After Modi took
charge as chief minister, the project acquired a new-found impetus, urgency
even importance as well as a self-financing plan through auction of plots for
commercial use on both banks for the Rs 1200 crore project. Among those who
have visited the Sabarmati ashram overlooking the riverfront include
dignitaries like Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Japanese premier
Shinzo Abe, US president Donald Trump and numerous others. It’s an almost must
visit port-of-call after Modi took over as PM.
But for all its
showcasing, the river per se has been declared
the second most polluted one in the country with CPCB deciding to
upgrade it to “category-1’ or critically
polluted status. The BOD( Bio oxygen demand) in Sabarmati river was found to be
292 mg per litre. Cooum in Tamil Nadu occupies first place.
It was in 2021 that the Gujarat High Court had
taken suo moto notice and has been
relentless thereafter in cracking down
on the civic body, errant industries and
all involved in polluting the river.
Initiated by Justice J.B.Pardiwala and Justice V.D. Nanavati in 2021, it is being pursued with the same
vigour by the present Chief Justice
Sunita Agarwal. “There should be no discharge of untreated water in the
Sabarmati river from either of the outfalls”, the Court had then observed.
In a hearing of
the Suo moto river pollution petition on
Friday, September 15 this year
counsel for the closed down textile units had pleaded for some relaxation in
rules to allow them to re-open.” We seek your intervention in asking the
Gujarat Pollution Control Board(GPCB) to adopt a pragmatic approach”, went the
plea. ”In this matter we will desist from doing so because we have adopted a pragmatic
approach for years together and everyone is suffering because of it”, said Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal. The
directions were straightforward. ”follow
rules’. The hearing continues.
In fact all
government bodies which had been looking the other way while pollution ran riot
in the river have buckled up after the higher judiciary cracked the whip
of joint accountability. On the same
day, the government made it known in the
Vidhan Sabha that no environmental clearance or environment impact assessment
report was needed for laying a deep sea pipeline to discharge treated
affluents. With no headway for over two years in this project, the government
had revived the project with a budgetary allocation of Rs 470 crores in the
budget estimates of 2023-24 this year. Earlier in July association of
industrial units around Ahmedabad had agreed to share costs for the 130 km long
pipeline but sought payment terms extended to 15 years. Textile units had to
close down after the Court prohibited
their discharge of treated industrial effluents into the civic sewerage network
because the high potency of chemicals in waste water had messed up the sewerage
treatment plants leading to contamination of
the river.
At least there
is someone who really cares for lesser mortals rather than for the privileged alone !
This syndicated
news column was published in the respective newspapers edition dated September 19, 2023 whose links are given
below:-
http://odishapostepaper.com/edition/4646/orissapost/page/9
Good and complete story!
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