Govt apathy forces 3 Ganga board members to resign

Distressed over the fact that the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has not met since April 2012, especially in wake of continued government apathy about 101st day of professor GD Agrawal’s fast for Ganga, three of its expert non-official members have resigned.

Distressed over the fact that the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has not met since April 2012, especially in wake of continued government apathy about 101st day of professor GD Agrawal’s fast for Ganga, three of its expert non-official members have resigned.

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Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh (Rajasthan), Ravi Chopra of People’s Science Institute (Uttarakhand) and Prof Rasheed Siddiqui of Dare-e-Hasan (Uttar Pradesh) dashed off the resignation letters to the Prime Minister on Friday night.

As reported by HT on Friday, scientist-turned-environmentalist Agrawal has been fasting since mid-June for a free flowing Ganga and from Saturday — the 101st day of his fast — stopped intake of water. The government, especially the Prime Minister’s Office, has not responded to his earlier letter before embarking on fast.

Pained at this criminal negligence, the members pointed out: “The Uttarakhand disaster — which claimed thousands of lives and cause colossal loss of property following flash floods due to cloudburst in mid-June — confirmed our fears that we have abused our rivers.”

“Soon after the disaster, we had written to the PM and also sought meetings. But nothing happened,” Singh told HT.