Contradictory reports on Ganga project emerge

In a repeat of the Posco inquiry, a committee looking into issues raised by Uma Bharti to save Dhara Devi temple in Uttarakhand has submitted fragmented reports with contradictory views.

Updated on: Jun 25, 2011, 23:37:07 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In a repeat of the Posco inquiry, a committee looking into issues raised by Uma Bharti to save Dhara Devi temple in Uttarakhand has submitted fragmented reports with contradictory views.

The official and non-official members of the committee have given separate reports showing a clear division on the proposed action to save the temple and enforce environmental rules to allow the increased scope of the 330 MW Srinagar Hydroelectricity Project.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh got the construction of the Alaknanda river dam stopped after Bharti wrote a letter against submergence of the temple to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh.

He constituted a three-member inquiry panel with two ministry officials S Das and Sanchita Jindal, and a Delhi University professor, Nayanjot Lahiri, to suggest measures to save the temple and submit a compliance report on environmental conditions imposed when the project was cleared in 1996.

Lahiri's report took a contrary view to the official members' report, who agreed with project proponents that the temple can be elevated using concrete pillars and said there was no need to review it.

Lahiri also objected to the committee members meeting the locals in the presence of project proponents Alaknanda Hydro Power Limited, thus resulting in their agreeing with the project.

She also differed with the view of the official members that there was no need to review environment clearance to increase the scope of the project from 200 MW to 330 MW and increase its height from 77 metres to 99 metres.

"Until an alternative plan is prepared and shared with the temple management, no further work should be done at Dhara Devi temple site," her report said.

In case of Posco, three non-official members had differed with Meena Gupta, former environment ministry secretary and submitted a separate report. But, the ministry had finally gone with Gupta's minority view.

Uma meets Sonia
BJP leader Uma Bharti met Sonia Gandhi on Saturday to demand effective action to save the Ganga.

"My demand is that Ganga should be declared a national river," Bharti said after the meeting.

"I am overwhelmed that Sonia Gandhi has kept the issue of Ganga separate from politics and given me time... She has assured me that she will talk to the PM and Ramesh regarding my demands, and also ask them to meet me."

Bharti's demands include the constitution of a board comprising locals, religious leaders, environmentalists and scientists to analyse all projects on the Ganga in Uttarakhand.

(With HTC inputs)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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