Nitin Gadkari: Let's clean up India's rivers

Gadkari at the Indian Merchants Chamber. Pic/Bipin Kokate

The houseful sign was up at the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) at Churchgate on a Thursday afternoon, while Nitin Gadkari, minister for shipping, road transport and highways, water resources, river development and Ganga Rejuvenation spoke on 'Development of Infrastructure and Ganga Rejuvenation'.

IMC president Raj Nair in his introduction said, "To truly understand the importance of a river, one needs to spend a day in the desert." Nair also said cleaning up the Ganga, "is really a precursor to cleaning the entire network of rivers in India," and recalled a time when, "we could drink water from streams. My generation spoilt that for future generations. Today, our children cannot believe that we could drink water from rivers and streams." Nair also made a plea to the minister for help for IMC members to get seats on the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) boards, bringing their expertise to the board, ending his talk with, "no water equals no life and no clean Ganga means no India."

Gadkari said, "We have moved ahead with the Ganga project. There were 10 cities that were polluting the Ganga - Delhi, Kanpur, Varanasi, Patna, and others - but we have projects in place now to tackle this pollution." Gadkari started number crunching on the projects in progress and completed, but earned applause when he said, "we are not just working on cleaning the Ganga. We are working on at least 40 rivers and nullahs that open into the Ganga."

Waste to wealth
Gadkari stressed on conversion of waste into wealth, saying, "that is big on our agenda. We are working on projects to recycle toilet water for power plants. There are at least 22 thermal projects on the banks of the Ganga. I can say categorically that by March 2019, the Ganga should be at least 70 to 80 per cent clean and the year after, totally clean."

Gadkari laughed cynically as he said, "you all may not believe me but check up our website for the progress of the work, hardly any positive news comes in newspapers these days."

The minister stated that the Ganga, which has huge religious significance, is also important for the economy. "We are developing river ports on the Ganga. There is the cruise tourism potential to explore," he said. Gadkari made a statement that Mumbaikars could immediately identify with. He said, "We have installed public toilets in at least 4,500 villages on the banks of the river Ganga, the villagers do not have to go in the open, or use the river."

Money matters
In the end though, Ganga rejuvenation means budgets and Gadkari stated, "There is no financial crunch. We have people to give us money, which is because we are transparent and corruption free. I want one crore people to give what they can for the Ganga, from a humble R101 to bigger amounts, they can do this through direct bank transfer. We will not take cash. We are also taking this movement ahead through 'Ganga mitra' or 'friends of the Ganga' who will spread awareness in schools, colleges, associations…" said the minister, winding up by adding that so many Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) were invested in the project.

Signing off, Gadkari stated, "When we visit holy sites abroad, we see cleanliness, here it is not so and that hurts a lot. Let us change that," he finished. The IMC paid Rs 25 lakh for the clean Ganga project, and now, we need to see donors who can cheque mate that.

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