THE discussions and actions in Delhi cause a heart-ache in Nagpur -- about the project of cleansing the Yamuna river that runs for 52 kilometers in the capital State. The Delhi administration has pressed into service many modern dredging machines to clean up the garbage dumped into the Yamuna river, and the people in general are cross-checking the credibility of the Delhi Government’s promise of completing the work in three years. Most experts and common people tend to believe that the task of cleansing of the Yamuna could be finished in three years. The most important underlying sentiment is that the people and the administration of Delhi are not going to allow hollow and shallow promises to mar the project of Yamuna cleansing.

 

They now rue the false promises made earlier and not kept. That regime must now change, they now insist. In Nagpur, that is the very problem -- of the credibility of the political leadership and civic administration. For, in the past 25 years, these two eco-systems have only heaped promises on the city, but have done little to fulfill those. And to add to the mess, the honourable citizens of Nagpur, too, have made their tremendous contribution to keep the Naag, the Pohra, and the Pili rivers of the city eternally and exceptionally dirty -- by dumping every possible piece of garbage or reject into their streams (for decades). Of course, the people of Nagpur are not the lone residents of this zone of river-spoilage (so to say). People of many cities around the world offer them company in this regard -- including places like London, Ahmedabad, Delhi ... !

 

The difference, however, is that in places like London and Ahmedabad, the stakeholders took matters in their hand in the most serious and systematic manner and rectified the mistakes they were committing for decades on end to spoil the rivers in their respective cities. In Ahmedabad, the Sabarmati River is now a wonderfully clean stream with a waterfront decked up to international standards. The people in London, too, took similar steps to convert the Thames River into a wonderfully cleaned waterbody. In Nagpur, no such effort was undertaken ever -- though tall promises were made only to be forgotten.

 

Or, in other words, the political leadership believed innately in the short memory of the people, so to say ! True, some stray efforts were always done by the civic administration. Yet, there was no consistency in those and no systematic and comprehensive idea of cleaning up of the Naag and the Pili and the Pohra rivers. Now that systematic efforts have begun in Delhi about cleaning up of the Yamuna, those who ardently wish the urgent upkeep of Nagpur rivers feel a deep ache in their hearts. Such people -- and their numbers are big -- wonder why the civic administration in Nagpur did not keep making the right and scientific efforts in a planned manner for all these years ! For, even if the civic authorities had put up only a few Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) every year and linking those to sewer lines dumping filth into the city’s three rivers, much could be achieved in the right direction. The city has a few STPs all right at a few places. But their number is grossly inadequate, and nobody really knows how efficiently those systems are working.

 

The city’s leaders do talk loudly about how the Nagpur Municipal Corporation cleans up the Naag River water and sells the treated water to the thermal plant at Koradi (to earn a few crore rupees annually). But beyond that, the city rivers are still full of filth round the year. If only the civic authorities had prepared a long-term, systematic, scientific plan of action to cleanse the city rivers and worked upon its details in a slow and steady manner within the framework of budget, then the condition of the three rivers could have been different. Yet, nothing of that sort happened. The city’s political and civic leadership kept serving nonsense to the people in the name of consultants and foreign investors from France and Japan and elsewhere. Then came the honourable Prime Minister -- Mr. Narendra Modi -- to the city and made a tall announcement about rejuvenation for the Naag river. Two-plus years went by, and nothing happened. The city is yet even to float tenders for the work -- that would begin only after a detailed survey (which, too, is yet to begin). All botch-up ! Where and how will the city leadership atone for this sin ? n