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A real environmental audit


surajmal

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What poetic justice that a high official in the Environment Ministry should be arrested for corruption in the week that the Kumbh Mela began. If there is a measure of the uselessness of this ministry, it is the shameful state of the Ganga and the Yamuna despite thousands of crore rupees of taxpayers money having been poured into the cleaning of these sacred rivers. As someone who has been following this story right from the time that Rajiv GandhiÃÔ government initiated its first Ganga Action Plan, I can report with certainty that these rivers would have been restored to pristine purity long ago had officials down the line been less corrupt. The buck stops at the Environment Ministry. It must explain where the money went. It must explain why officials involved in the supposed cleaning of these rivers have not been sacked and publicly humiliated. It must explain why we are still only talking about banning raw sewage from being poured into these rivers. And, it must explain why we are still only talking about banning the dumping of poisonous industrial effluents into these rivers. Why have these measures not already been taken despite nearly 25 years having passed since the original Ganga Action Plan was launched? If proof were needed that the Ministry of Environment needs to be replaced immediately by an Environment Protection Agency manned by real environmentalists, that proof lies in the polluted waters of the Ganga and the Yamuna. How much longer do we need to wait before admitting that the Environment Ministry has been derelict in dealing with the really big environmental problems in India while, at the same time, making a lot of sound and fury over things that do not matter? No government has had a worse record than this one when it comes to this because it has allowed the Environment Ministry to concentrate its attentions on harassing big business and stopping major infrastructure projects instead of doing its real job. Since 2004, the ministry has been headed by ministers who turned it into a vehicle for a new license raj. No less a person than the Prime Minister has been forced to admit this. But, because until recently the mighty National Advisory Council (NAC) was directly involved in the license raj aspect, he could do nothing about it. Now that the NAC is mercifully enfeebled on account of dissensions and a drying up of funds, it is time that the Prime Minister asserted himself and demanded that the Environment Ministry give him a list of measurable standards. Roads will go through forests and mountains, so when they do what can be demanded from the road builders by way of reforestation. Coal, bauxite and iron ore will be mined if we are to reduce our import bills so what should companies (public and private) be expected to do by way of compensating for the environmental degradation. Rivers will be dammed for electricity so can the Environment Minister outline exactly what can be done to prevent rivers from drying up. We do not need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to taking such measures because other countries have already been where we are now. It is our bad luck that bureaucrats (like the one just arrested) have come up with so many creative ways of making money in the name of saving the environment and helping the poor. The new Companies Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill are fine examples of this bureaucratic chicanery. The Companies Bill includes provisions for a ÃØater audit for private companies that will end up being just another means of rent collection. Meanwhile, nobody seems to have noticed that if there is a major water crisis brewing in India, it is almost entirely because of criminal negligence on the part of governments and municipalities. If the Land Acquisition Bill becomes law in its present form it will succeed mostly in providing more avenues of graft because private companies will have even their legitimate purchases scrutinised. Instead of wasting time on this kind of thing, why does the Prime Minister not demand a full audit of the Environment Ministry? If it is unable to explain where the money meant for cleaning our sacred rivers went then it should be closed down with immediate effect. But, it would be unfair if I ended this piece without pointing out that if our so-called environmental NGOs had been more interested in the environment than in self-promotion, this ministry would have been brought to book long ago. It has managed to get away with ineptitude and a long history of corrupt practices because nobody has asked the right questions. What is worse is that nobody has even demanded from this ministry that most fundamental of things: measurable standards.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-real-environmental-audit/1061901/3 One **** story after another. I want to blow my ****ing brains out.
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