Official inertia alleged as heavy rainwater mixed with untreated chemical effluents spread to villages

By Our Representative
Top environmental group, Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, Vadodara, in a statement, has alleged that the Vadodara Enviro Channel Ltd, which is supposed to treat industrial effluents and dispose it of in the sea via a channel, has been releasing untreated chemical effluents, polluting large number of villages, including those which are situated 56 kilomtres away, right up to Jambusar taluka in Bharuch district. The environmental group has said, “This came to light soon after heavy rains lashed in Vadodara and South Gujarat this week. Things have reached such a point that, mixed with rainwater, effluents reached up to Nondhana and Sarod villages of Jambusar taluka passing through Jaspur, Luna, Ekalbara, Chokari, Tithor, Karakhadi, Dudhvala, Kahnava and Viludara villages.”
The statement added, “These effluents are being released from the Nandesari industrial estate and the Vadodara Petrochemicals Complex. This came to light when people found red and yellow colour water in the two villages of Jambusar taluka. Coloured water can be seen moving towards the pond along with rainwater in the ponds of the two villages as also in Ranmukteshwar Mahadev pond.”
The Vadodara Enviro Channel Ltd, in association with the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, are responsible for providing environmental solutions to industrial units, which do not have facilities to treat effluents released by them. The company has admitted in its website that except for big industries, the smaller units have simply no knowhow to manage environment, hence it provides environmental solutions to them as a consultant.
Criticising the company for failing to accomplish the job it is responsible to carry out, the Samiti said, “The untreated effluents are flowing down the channel for the last two days despite the fact that there is clearcut direction by the subdivisional magistrate, Bharuch, not to allow any effluents to be released like this. There are orders that steps should be taken against those responsible for releasing the untreated effluents. However, it seems that the orders have gone completely unheeded, and the effluents continue to be released.”
The environment group said, a similar situation existed for several years in the past – in 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012 and this year in July. “Similar order was even passed in 2003, but things have not changed,” it said, adding, things have reached such a point that “effluent waters are village ponds, polluting them, dangerously imperiling the health of the rural population.”
Asking Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to immediately intervene into a disaster in the making in the rural areas of Vadodara district, instead of talking development, the environment group has demanded half-a-dozen steps which should immediately be taken to fight the existing situation. These include:
· Immediate steps to empty all the village ponds
· After clearing the ponds, steps should be taken to remove the polluted sand gathered in the pit
· Thereafter, clean Narmada waters should be diverted from the main canal towards the ponds
· A special investigation committee should be set up with officials from the Central Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, local representatives and NGOs to identify the culprits and punish them
· Responsible officials of the Vadodara Enviro Channel Ltd and Gujarat Pollution Control Board, responsible for releasing untreated effluents should pay for cleaning up the ponds
· The villagers who have suffered should be paid compensation
The environmental group threatened “serious consequences” in case the government fails to take these steps. “You should be prepared for a long drawn out struggle by the people of the region”, it adds.

Sabarmati carrying capacity questioned

In a separate statement, the environmental group’s head, Rohit Prajapati, has said the heavy rains that have lashed Ahmedabad have exposed the claims that the Sabarmati riverfront project has enough carrying capacity for flood waters. “The rains have created havoc in the city but I feel very sorry about the debate around this issue because Sabarmati River Front’s impact is completely ignored”, he has said.
“Sabarmati river’s carrying capacity because of the river front inside the Ahmedabad city is drastically reduced at least by 50% and that has slowed down the rainwater flow in to the river from various parts of the city. It is shocking and surprising that the Sabarmati River Front Project has converted the river into a channel inside Ahmedabad city. The river front has converted the Sabarmati river into a channel at a uniform width of 275 meters”, he said.
“The ecology of Sabarmati has been transformed to gratify the commercial greed for very few. Even a report by the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee in 2007 indicated that the river front’s calculations did not take into account any simultaneous heavy rainfall over the entire catchment area”, he said, issuing an “appeal” to the people of Ahmedabad to ask government to explain that how can there is no impact of the Sabarmati River Front Project during such a heavy rain.
“Nobody can guarantee in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar offices that there will not be heavy rain in future. Let us have a public debate on the issue in very transparent way. I appeal media to take up this issue for scientific debate in public interest”, he said.

Comments

What's behind public sector banks showing huge profits in 2nd quarter of 2022-23?

By Thomas Franco* The quarter two results of the public sector banks (PSBs) appear to be noteworthy compared to a few years ago. All these banks showed good profits in the financial year 2021-22. Twelve PSBs made a net profit of Rs 25,685 crore in quarter 2 of FY23 and a total of Rs 40,991 crore in the first half of 2023. The combined profit of 12 banks in March 2022 was Rs 66,539 crore which was 110% more than 2021 – Rs. 31,816 crore. The Asset Quality Review of 2015 saw a surge in NPAs of PSBs jumping to Rs 8.96 lakh crore in March 2018 from Rs 2.17 lakh crore in March 2014. This was simply because the norms for NPAs were changed from 180 days to 90 days, and all restructuring of even genuine accounts was done away with. In 2018 NPA of SBI was 5.73% which has come down to 0.8% in Q2 of FY23. The NPA of Canara Bank has come down to 2.19% from 7.48% in Mar 2018. The same trend is seen in all public banks. Now SBI has seen a jump of 74% in its net profit, while Canara Bank’s profit is

Business back to normal? IIM-A survey says, sales expectations have sharply improved

By Our Representative The Indian Institute of Management’s Business Inflation Expectations Survey (BIES), which polls a panel of business leaders to find out their perception of slack in economy, including their inflation expectations, year-ahead cost expectations and the factors influencing price changes, such as profit and sales levels, etc., has said that the cost perceptions data indicates signs of moderation in price pressures. Carried out for September, the survey says, the cost pressure of the reporting firms has shifted from “very significant increase (over 6%) to moderate increase (3.1% to 6%).” It adds, “The percentage of firms perceiving over 10% cost increase y-o-y has declined. Over 21% of the firms in September 2022 round of the survey perceive that costs have increased very significantly (over 10%) – down from 26% recorded in August 2022.” Claiming to be a unique survey, in that it goes straight to businesses -- the price setters -- rather than to consumers or household

Innovative, Hrishikesh Mukherjee's movies often banked on excessive sentimentalism

By Harsh Thakor* Late Hrishikesh Mukherjee more popularly known as Hrishi Da, whose birth centenary was celebrated recently, ranks amongst India’s most progressive and innovative film makers, exhibiting mastery in craft of making socially relevant themes. Mukherjee knitted plots together with great visualisation and sensitivity, be it in comedy, pathos, anger or romance, weaving every ingredient in proper proportion. Melodrama was restrained and scripts dissected with surgical skill. Without over romanticisation, Mukherjee would do complete justice to the role of the character. He did not champion art films, but gave commercial films an artistic touch. Rarely have artists transcended the medium of cinema to project the real essence of their cultural values so or film directors who narrate a simple tale of regular families that have characters of unique shades, characters which are bound to touch human emotions universally. His characters frequently underwent life-changing journeys

GoI's productivity linked incentives to corporates 'without independent analysis'

Counterview Desk Wondering how prudent is the Government of India's (GoI's) Productivity Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, EAS Sarma, former secretary, GoI, in a representation to Nirmala Sitharaman, Union finance minister, has said it appears to be nothing more than subsidy to the private sector without any responsibility. Giving a specific example against the backdrop of announcement of 50% subsidy covering the project cost of the Vedanta Group's decision to set up a semiconductor fabrication plant in Gujarat, in collaboration with Foxconn, Sarma says, "The total cost of this project is reported to be Rs 1,54,000 crore. 50% of this works out to Rs 77,000 crore." Stating that this creates the impression that the entire subsidy allocation for the semiconductor manufacturing sector would be appropriated by this company, Sarma says, "The Gujarat government did not lag behind in liberally announcing similar incentives for the Vedanta-Foxconn project. It offered 7

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

There aren't any hard data to prove forced conversion, why move for a Central law?

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* Srinivasan Jain, the popular TV anchor with NDTV, has done a tremendous service to the Constitution of India and, thereby, to the people of India! In a hard-hitting exposé on his weekly segment ‘Truth vs Hype’, released on 19 November, Jain talks about the so-called ‘Forced Conversions’ with incontrovertible facts and the falsehoods and myths that are built around the issue! A good part of his expose is an interview with Ashwin Kumar Upadhyay, the petitioner in the current case on ‘forced conversions’ in the Supreme Court. Jain directly takes on Upadhyay and the 65-page petition submitted by the latter to the Supreme Court. Jain emphatically states that not a single example cited by Upadhyay in the petition comes under the ambit of ‘forced conversion’. In fact, Jain proves that one of the examples is completely fake! Upadhyay, however, continues with his rant without being able to authenticate or substantiate or furnish a single bit of evidence to prove his

Diminishing returns: Hydro projects contribute less than 10% of India's power generation

Counterview Desk Pointing out that India’s hydro generation remains around 10% for the last six years, the advocacy group South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) has said that power generation from hydropower projects continues to show diminishing returns, as has been the story close to three decades now. Yet, says SANDRP in a note, the Government of India continues to push large hydro by announcing a slew of additional subsidies for hydropower projects, more for political economy reason. In fact, attempts are being made to flog unviable hydropower projects with various kind of manipulations, illegalities and violations, it adds. Text : In last six years, from 2016-17 to 2021-22, India’s large hydropower projects (projects above 25 MW installed capacity) have contributed just around 10% of the total power generation, going as low as 9.68% in 2017-18. In fact, in three of these six years, large hydro contributed less than 10% and recovering only marginally in the rest,

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Search This Blog