छछरौली, संवाद सूत्र : यमुना बचाओ अभियान और यमुना नदी के उदगमदिवस पर बृहस्पतिवार को वृंदावन से काफी संख्या में श्रद्धालु हथनीकुंड बैराज पर पहुचे। उन्होने पूजा अर्चना की और पूरी श्रद्धा और भक्ति से यमुना मैय्या के जयकारों के साथ छठ पर्व और यमुना नदी का उदगमदिन मनाया। जत्थे के महाराज जय किशनदास और इनके साथ चल रहे उत्तर प्रदेश के भारतीय किसान यूनियन के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष भानू प्रताप ने बताया कि यह एक अभियान है जो कि यमुना को बचाने के बारे में पूरे देश में चलाया जा रहा है।
उन्होने कहा कि इसके लिए वृंदावन उत्तर प्रदेश में एक फरवरी से अखंड यज्ञ चलाया जा रहा है जो कि एक मार्च 2013 तक चलेगा। उसके बाद पूरे देश में पैदल यात्रा कर जन-जन को यमुना नदी की हो रही दुर्दशा और उसके महत्व के बारे में जागरूक किया जाएगा। उन्होने कहा कि इसके लिए उनका जत्था दिल्ली के जंतर-मंतर पर भी 15 दिन का अनशन कर चुका है, लेकिन वहा से राजनीतिक दबाव के कारण खाली हाथ ही लौटना पड़ा था। अब हिदू धर्म के अनुयायियों ने ही इसका बीड़ा उठाया है।
वृंदावन में पधारने का यमुना को निमंत्रण :
वृंदावन से हथनीकुंड बैराज पर आए सभी श्रद्धालुओं ने यमुना जी से प्रार्थना की कि वह उनके वृंदावन में पधारें। इसी के साथ सभी ने यमुना का स्वच्छ जल वृंदावन तक ले जाने की शपथ ली कि जब तक यमुना जी का स्वच्छ जल हमारे वृंदावन में नही पहुंचेगा तब तक वह चैन की सास नहीं लेंगे।
इस मौके पर भारतीय किसान यूनियन के राष्ट्रीय उपाध्यक्ष रतन सिंह पहलवान, पदाधिकारी जयसमपाल सिंह, महासचिव हरीश कुमार, महाराज जय किशनदास मौजूद रहे।
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
No green nod for new Noida industries (Times of India 13 April 2012)
NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal ordered a ban on environmental clearances for any new industry or expansion of the existing ones in areas falling under New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) on Thursday. The order was in response to a petition filed by an area resident Sanjay Agnihotri, who had raised ecological concerns in Noida, the 12th most polluted zone in the country.
The two-judge bench of G K Pandey and A Suryanarayan Naidu said, "We direct that no further environmental clearance shall be granted to any of the new industrial units nor any operating industry shall be permitted to expand in Noida or change in product-mix nor consent to establish and operate in case of defaulting units should be granted without obtaining prior permission from this Tribunal." Taking the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and NOIDA to task, the bench noted that despite repeated notices neither body had appeared before the court and it asked the member-secretary of CPCB and the chairperson or any other officer of the Authority to be present on May 8, the next day of hearing.
The court ordered the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) to conduct on-the-spot inspections and submit a report to the bench about the extent of industrial pollution. It also directed UPPCB to take action against industries that are flouting green norms. It said, "The matter being very serious, UPPCB is directed to conduct spot inspection on war footing." The report is to include information on the number of industries not complying with environmental standards and regulations, the amount of hazardous waste being generated by each unit and plants operating without effluent treatment plants, besides other critical data. The CPCB has also been asked to conduct air quality survey in adjoining areas of Noida like Mayur Vihar, Vasundhara Enclave and villages located within a radius of 15 km from its border.
The petitioner had in his plea said that though the Union environment ministry put a moratorium on new industries in the cluster, it was removed later. He claimed the lifting of the moratorium in Noida was based on a spurious plea that "the local stakeholders have initiated some work on implementation of submitted action plans..."
The two-judge bench of G K Pandey and A Suryanarayan Naidu said, "We direct that no further environmental clearance shall be granted to any of the new industrial units nor any operating industry shall be permitted to expand in Noida or change in product-mix nor consent to establish and operate in case of defaulting units should be granted without obtaining prior permission from this Tribunal." Taking the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and NOIDA to task, the bench noted that despite repeated notices neither body had appeared before the court and it asked the member-secretary of CPCB and the chairperson or any other officer of the Authority to be present on May 8, the next day of hearing.
The court ordered the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) to conduct on-the-spot inspections and submit a report to the bench about the extent of industrial pollution. It also directed UPPCB to take action against industries that are flouting green norms. It said, "The matter being very serious, UPPCB is directed to conduct spot inspection on war footing." The report is to include information on the number of industries not complying with environmental standards and regulations, the amount of hazardous waste being generated by each unit and plants operating without effluent treatment plants, besides other critical data. The CPCB has also been asked to conduct air quality survey in adjoining areas of Noida like Mayur Vihar, Vasundhara Enclave and villages located within a radius of 15 km from its border.
The petitioner had in his plea said that though the Union environment ministry put a moratorium on new industries in the cluster, it was removed later. He claimed the lifting of the moratorium in Noida was based on a spurious plea that "the local stakeholders have initiated some work on implementation of submitted action plans..."
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Volunteers urge people not to pollute Yamuna with puja items (Hindustant Times 02 April 2012)
Taking a small step to prevent the Yamuna from getting more polluted, volunteers of a non government organisation stopped people from throwing puja items into the river on Sunday. According to Gopi Dutt Aakash, founder member and president of Youth Fraternity Foundation (YFF), an NGO Working to same Yamuna from pollution, hundreds of tonnes of plastic and other pollution material find their way into the river during the festival season.
“During last Navratras in October 2011, an estimated six lakh kilograms of puja items was thrown into River Yamuna in Delhi alone. We want to create a system where the sacred waste is collected directly and disposed of and recycled properly without causing any pollution in the river,” Aakash said.
Under the project ‘Pushpanjali Pravah’, the volunteers of YFF collected two truckloads of sacred waste from Yamuna Bridge on Vikas Marg on Saturday. The NGO put up banners on the iron grille along the bridge, requesting people not to throw any waste in the river.
Aakash said that they wanted to run the campaign on all the six road bridges on the Yamuna in Delhi but could only do it at Vikas Marg due to shortage of manpower. Short on resources, the volunteers let people dispose of biodegradable waste in the river and collected the non-biodegradable waste such as plastic and cloth.
“We make bags of cloth and plastic and agarbattis and manure out of flowers,” Aakash said.
We want to create a system where the sacred waste is collected diretly.
Volunteers stop people from throwing puja items into the river; banners were put up along the grille, requesting people to preserve Yamuna
“During last Navratras in October 2011, an estimated six lakh kilograms of puja items was thrown into River Yamuna in Delhi alone. We want to create a system where the sacred waste is collected directly and disposed of and recycled properly without causing any pollution in the river,” Aakash said.
Under the project ‘Pushpanjali Pravah’, the volunteers of YFF collected two truckloads of sacred waste from Yamuna Bridge on Vikas Marg on Saturday. The NGO put up banners on the iron grille along the bridge, requesting people not to throw any waste in the river.
Aakash said that they wanted to run the campaign on all the six road bridges on the Yamuna in Delhi but could only do it at Vikas Marg due to shortage of manpower. Short on resources, the volunteers let people dispose of biodegradable waste in the river and collected the non-biodegradable waste such as plastic and cloth.
“We make bags of cloth and plastic and agarbattis and manure out of flowers,” Aakash said.
We want to create a system where the sacred waste is collected diretly.
Volunteers stop people from throwing puja items into the river; banners were put up along the grille, requesting people to preserve Yamuna
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Proposal to turn drains into roads opposed (The Hindu 30 March 2012)
Members of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan write to Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways
Members of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, a civil society consortium working in the area of restoration of the Yamuna and its various tributaries, has written to Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Dr. C. P. Joshi stating that “they were alarmed by the fact that the Ministry had recently sanctioned proposals from the Delhi Government to turn a few of the city drains into roads''.
“A case in point is a sanction of Rs.4,523 lakh to construct a road over 52 cusec drain from Mandoli Road to Drain No. 1 near Jafarabad in Shahdara (North) Zone. It is also no secret that Delhi is today known for rampant flooding in its low lying areas resulting from poorly planned and laid roads many of which have cut the natural drainage system of the city. In such a scenario the storm water drains in the city manage to keep it safe from flooding during the monsoon season. Accordingly these drains play a life line role for the city and closing them would mean trouble for the Capital,'' said Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan convener Manoj Misra.
The group has suggested that the drains be secured by law against encroachment and waste dumping and then converted into green and blue spaces in the form of secure open waterways enclosed with greenery in their flood zones.
“Delhi is the first city on the Yamuna and it is a city with an undulating terrain as a result of which both West and East Delhi have many natural storm water drains. In countries all over the world, the natural storm water drains are treated with much care and their integrity maintained through laws and regulations. Unfortunately no such mechanism is in place in our country and it is left to the municipalities to deal with them. In many places, most unfortunately, these drains have been covered and turned into roads without realising that such an action is no less than an invitation to double disaster,'' noted the letter.
Noting that covering of these drain increases the risk of flooding and the other is that there remains a strong possibility of such roads subsiding in due course, Mr. Misra said: “Wherever these drains are they also carry sewage and waste water and covering them would turn these drains into a gas chamber (no matter how many gas outlets one may create) and increase the toxic concentration (in absence of adequate oxygenation of the water in the drain) of the water flowing therein.''
Members of the Abhiyaan also noted that in the short term such covering of drains into roads provide a cleaner and sanitised look and might improve some connectivity in the city. “But let us not forget that all this is a short term solution with long term ecological damage and grave dangers of avoidable flooding and structural collapse. We hope that due attention will be awarded to the concerns of the environmentalists,'' noted the letter.
Members of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, a civil society consortium working in the area of restoration of the Yamuna and its various tributaries, has written to Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Dr. C. P. Joshi stating that “they were alarmed by the fact that the Ministry had recently sanctioned proposals from the Delhi Government to turn a few of the city drains into roads''.
“A case in point is a sanction of Rs.4,523 lakh to construct a road over 52 cusec drain from Mandoli Road to Drain No. 1 near Jafarabad in Shahdara (North) Zone. It is also no secret that Delhi is today known for rampant flooding in its low lying areas resulting from poorly planned and laid roads many of which have cut the natural drainage system of the city. In such a scenario the storm water drains in the city manage to keep it safe from flooding during the monsoon season. Accordingly these drains play a life line role for the city and closing them would mean trouble for the Capital,'' said Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan convener Manoj Misra.
The group has suggested that the drains be secured by law against encroachment and waste dumping and then converted into green and blue spaces in the form of secure open waterways enclosed with greenery in their flood zones.
“Delhi is the first city on the Yamuna and it is a city with an undulating terrain as a result of which both West and East Delhi have many natural storm water drains. In countries all over the world, the natural storm water drains are treated with much care and their integrity maintained through laws and regulations. Unfortunately no such mechanism is in place in our country and it is left to the municipalities to deal with them. In many places, most unfortunately, these drains have been covered and turned into roads without realising that such an action is no less than an invitation to double disaster,'' noted the letter.
Noting that covering of these drain increases the risk of flooding and the other is that there remains a strong possibility of such roads subsiding in due course, Mr. Misra said: “Wherever these drains are they also carry sewage and waste water and covering them would turn these drains into a gas chamber (no matter how many gas outlets one may create) and increase the toxic concentration (in absence of adequate oxygenation of the water in the drain) of the water flowing therein.''
Members of the Abhiyaan also noted that in the short term such covering of drains into roads provide a cleaner and sanitised look and might improve some connectivity in the city. “But let us not forget that all this is a short term solution with long term ecological damage and grave dangers of avoidable flooding and structural collapse. We hope that due attention will be awarded to the concerns of the environmentalists,'' noted the letter.
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