Intro: Government of India is focusing on the healthy flow of water in the Holy River Ganga. Cleaning the mounds of soil and heaps of garbage from the Ghats is a key step to ensure the revival of their past glory.
The beautification of Varanasi (Banaras), ‘Nirmal Ganga’ and ‘Swachh Bharat’ may certainly be a far-fetched dream, but by wielding a spade in his own hands the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has certainly set an example for all the other MPs to focus on cleanliness and beautification too while chalking out developmental strategies. In order to inspire the people of his constituency, the PM Modi also wielded a broom in a by lane leading to the Jagannath Temple in Assi Ghat area. And the result is—Assi Ghat is not the same as it was before. The mounds of soil and heaps of garbage have been removed and the ghat stairs are cleaned up once again.
Assi Ghat also maintains aquatic life in Tortoise Wild Life Sanctuary there. It is a seven kilometre-long stretch between Rajghat and Ramnagar in Varanasi in which tortoise, Gangetic dolphins and other aquatic species are found. It was planned as a habitat in 1988 for endangered aquatic species and carnivorous tortoise were used as bio-pollutant removers.
Modi’s initiative inspired a number of local organisations to clean up Assi Ghat, and he also thanked the citizens of Varanasi, NGOs and private organisations, Varanasi Municipal Corporation for cleaning the Assi Ghat here where filth had accumulated on the banks of the holy river Ganga. There is optimism among people about the future of this temple town, represented in the Parliament by the Modi himself. The people of Varanasi firmly believe that Modi’s plan for their city will take concrete shape in five years. And there are indications that the Prime Minister is on the right track.
And the people are certainly impressed. “Modiji did it himself, and thereby inspired several individuals and social organisations to undertake the work. And the result is before us”, says Prashant Tripathi, the student of Law at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). “We are proud of our MP who is luckily also the PM, because he is serious about what he says. Within five years we will notice the change in Varanasi”, he added.
Varanasi is set to receive attention and if things move in the right direction, it will become a global centre of Indian spiritual tourism. Modi is broad-basing his team to turn Kashi into a national cultural hub. In a recent report The Economic Times wrote: “Among those said to be working on the project is Google, apart from professionals and consultants engaged in identifying tourism hotspots in and around Varanasi, beautification, landscaping, mapping the city for better movement and security.”
In its Maiden Budget, the Modi Government announced a 6,300-plus crore 'Namami Ganga' plan–Rs 2,037 crore will go into rejuvenating the river, and another 4,200 crore will be spent on developing a navigation corridor in the next six years. Then there is a 100 crore project dedicated to Ghat development and waterfront beautification. The government also announced a “NRI Ganga Fund” to help drive fund collection, the money from which will be spent on ‘special projects’. From clean-up drives to restructure the traffic plans, construction of an auditorium, a music academy that could be a patron for Varanasi's famed musician families and more. Social media and communication strategies will form a major part of his plan. VD Dwivedi, the chartered accountant, says that “The PM has a vision and he knows how to execute it. The things might appear to move slowly, but we will see the results within five years.”
On the ‘Good Governance Day’(on the occasion of the 90th birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee), he supervised the cleanliness campaign and also nominated various people and organisations to join the ‘Swachh Bharat (Clean India)’ campaign launched by his government on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on October 2 last. “People, social organisations, municipal coporation and State government have played an important role and we are seeing today that the ghat, which was full of soil, is now back to its old beauty alongside Mother Ganga,” he had said in a brief address.
Dr Brahma Dutt Tripathi, Professor of Environmental Engineering, BHU suggests that we also need to focus on ‘aviralta’ of Ganga, because that related to ‘nirmalta’. “No doubt, the contamination caused by floral waste, dead bodies and industrial effluents are serious problems, but Ganga is seriously suffering from the problem of reduced flow due to construction of dams on the main stream and the Bhagirathi in Uttrakhand, and the government needs to focus on that too”, Dr Tripathi added. He is also a member of the National Ganges River Basin Authority (NGRBA). The NGRBA is the financing, planning, implementing, monitoring and coordinating authority for the Ganga. The diversion of water for irrigation is another stress, he said. The healthy flow of water in the river is the key to ensuring its self-cleansing potential.
Kailash Pati Tripathi, a senior journalist, expresses more concern about the solid waste management. He says that “Floral waste, plastic bags, coconuts, silt and other solid waste also dot the Ghats. About 33,000 dead bodies are cremated on the Harish Chandra and Manikarnika. Moreover, about 3,000 dead bodies of humans and about 6,000 of animals are thrown into the Ganga in Varanasi every year.”
However, the cleaning of 2,525 km river stretch from Gaumukh (Uttrakhand) to Ganga Sagar (West Bengal) cannot be accomplished within five years. Though Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar has assured the apex court that the government proposed to conclude the cleansing programme by 2018 and those municipalities and other authorities have been moved into action.
However, the problems faced by the people here are numerous. From traffic to pollution to unplanned development, Varanasi is besieged by a series of grave problems. The city generates 400 Million Litres a Day (MLD) of sewage, with only three sewage treatment plants that handle only 102 MLD. In Varanasi the local authorities laid down the sewage line and almost 80 per cent of that work is also over. But people are still waiting for a bigger sewage treatment plant. Akhilesh Shukla, a social worker and Director of ‘Jan Shikshan Sansthan’ says, “The local quantum of sewage, one of the primary pollutants, is 300 MLD. In contrast, the capacity of the current STPs in Dinapur and Bhagwanpur is about 90 MLD, when they work at full capacity. Thus, about 200 MLD is still discharged untreated and even if they start building STPs today, they would take about five years to complete.”
Dr Shakti Kumar Pandey (The writer is the correspondent and has recently visited Assi Ghat, Varanasi)
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