The Supreme Court on Wednesday said Ganga cleansing programmes have been going on for over three decades with almost no impact on the ground and wondered whether the government wanted to do something during this tenure or would it spill over to the next term.
Only 40 of the 160 projects under the Namami Gange Mission -- a Rs 20,000 crore project for cleaning the river -- have been completed.
Directions have been issued to about 48 industrial units polluting River Ganga to close down, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.
The green panel ordered a survey to seek views of the common people about what they feel on ground about the pollution in the Ganga.
The TMC-led West Bengal government has already started laying the groundwork for the election, setting the tone with the recent Bengal Global Business Summit and the state Budget.
The feisty sadhvi also targeted Gandhi for attacking Modi over his "son of the Ganga from Gujarat" comment, saying the Congress leader should know that his mother Sonia Gandhi "reveres the river" despite her Italian origin.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today accused the National Democratic Alliance government of turning the programme to clean Ganga as a "Hindutva project" by attempting to polarise politics through the initiative on the holy river.
'There will always be hiccups given that the Namami Gange programme is spread over different sectors and involves several agencies.'
Speaking at the third meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority on Tuesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh voiced concern over the discharge of 2,900 million litres of sewage in the Ganga every day.
Share of central government will be Rs. 5,100 crore and of the state governments of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal will be Rs. 1,900 crore.
If the Ganga manages a rebirth, so will the country.Roy
With Bihar battling floods despite receiving less than normal rains, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking the Centre's intervention as he insisted that desilting the river Ganga is the only solution to avoid the almost annual occurrence of floods.
It has been said that by 2025, India could become among the top five economies in the world. If India does become a $5 trillion economy but gets all its rivers polluted, food chain poisoned and genetic pool depleted and biometric database of Indians sold or stolen at the behest of commercial czars, will it not be a pyrrhic economic victory, asks Gopal Krishna.
'Two have already sacrificed their lives.' 'How many more shall need to sacrifice before the government listens?' 'Four, five or six? They are ready, waiting.' After Ganga campaigner G D Agrawal's death, a Haridwar ashram's sadhus are on a relay fast unto death.
The Ganga agitation and the question of preserving the Himalayan ecology has become a deadly cocktail of politics and religion. Behind the scene, of course, at play are powerful business interests. What is needed is an independent scientific assessment of the problem and preparation of a blueprint for preservation of the Himalayan rivers and associated ecology, says Dinesh C Sharma.
Wants another committee to review adverse report of experts against 6 dams
Were river experts excluded from IIT consortium on the Ganga River Basin Management Plan? Rashme Sehgal reports.
The NRSC satellite imagery revealed that the lake covered approximately 162.7 hectares. Its area increased to 167.4 hectares on September 28 but drastically reduced to 60.3 hectares.
The study conducted a systematic survey of landslides and derived a statistical model, aimed at quantifying landslide susceptibility along the NH-7 at a high spatial resolution, the findings said.
'70 per cent of sewage flows untreated into the river along its entire course. Hardwar and Rishikesh remain two of our holiest cities. Then why has the government failed to do anything?' 'If Modi can do with the Ganga what he has done with the Sabarmati, that will be a major achievement.'
'It will take many years to clean the Ganga. It will not happen in five years like the prime minister wants. If you want it to be sustainable, temporary measures won't work.' Twinkle Tom, an environmental engineer by training (from Stanford no less!), now designs wedding gowns because India, sadly, does not want her expertise and skill.
Flood victims have been fighting for survival and living in temporary shelters nearby railway tracks with lack of food items. They are yet to get any help from the government, reports M I Khan.
'Above 2,000 metres the gradient of the Himalayas is very steep and if you build any infrastructure (roads, dams, hydro power projects) in these regions, it will not be able to sustain these events (the onslaught of debris that comes down with great speeds).'
Every river is a living person, argues Gopal Krishna on the basis of the recent Uttarakhand HC verdict.
Rediff Labs analyses the current storage departure of water in 91 reservoirs across the country.
'Why should the people of Odisha divert water from the Mahanadhi when 13 out of 32 districts are chronically drought prone?' 'Water is a state subject. Can you really nationalise rivers for which you need drastic amendments in the Constitution?'
'Today, environment has become an issue of political debate. It has become a media issue. I think that is a good development.'
BC Tripathi, who helms India's largest natural gas marketer and transporter -- GAIL, discusses last-mile connectivity to homes with Jyoti Mukul and Shine Jacob.
To avert another Uttarakhand-type catastrophe, we must change course. We should stop pandering to the Indian elite's insatiable appetite for electricity, which is driving reckless dam construction, says Praful Bidwai
For teams that work on projects to make art, culture and travel accessible to the differently-abled, the experience of seeing faces light up is reward in itself.
'Those who have seen the functioning of the Modi government in Gujarat know that the issues related to Hindutva and issues of economy and growth function simultaneously.' 'Modi's politics are based on the understanding of the middle-class consumer society which is in pursuit of material aspirations.' Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reveals the Modi government's economic and political plans for the year ahead.
'Himalayan glaciers are expected to become smaller, and small glaciers will have disappeared, but by no means will all glaciers have melted by the end of the 21st century,' glaciologist Markus Stoffel tells Rashme Sehgal.
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