Anna Hazare Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to immediately call a meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) in the wake of the deteriorating condition of 80-year-old noted environmentalist G.D. Agarwal, who is on a fast-unto-death since Jan 15 to save the Ganga river.
Agarwal has been admitted to AIIMS and put on drip as he is refusing food.
“It’s my request to accept the agenda suggested by G.D. Agarwal and to immediately call the Ganga River Basin Authority meeting,” Hazare wrote in his letter.
“Before a final decision is taken in the meeting, the construction of dams and tunnels should be stopped,” he said in his letter in Hindi.
He also said Agarwal, a former IIT professor, has been raising “a very important issue”.
“I think if Ganga is not saved then the country’s most irrigated part would be destroyed and crores of people will feel hurt,” he said.
“For a democratically elected government it is not right to hurt the feeling of the people. I am confident that you would discharge your duty and take the right steps,” he added.
In his two-page letter, Hazare, who has been highlighting the need for a strong law in the country to tackle corruption in high places, said Ganga river is revered by millions and today it is being “polluted.”
The prime minister had set up the NGRBA in 2009, which is a central government constituted body for cleaning the Ganga.
Hazare said in the past one-and-a-half years no meeting has taken place and since the body was constituted three years ago only two meetings have taken place.
The 74-year-old activist also mentioned in his letter that four members of the NGRBA have resigned.
While Rajendra Singh resigned as the chairman NGRBA last week over “government’s insensitivity towards Agarwal and gross negligence towards worsening state of the holy river”, two other members of the NGRBA have also resigned over the issue.
Agarwal has served as secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board, the country’s premier anti-pollution body, and helped put together environmental legislation in India. This is his third fast-unto-death in last four years.
His major concern includes unsatisfactory and ineffective functioning of the National Ganga River Basin Authority.
Besides, Agarwal is against ongoing construction of dams/barrages/tunnels on Ganga which would totally destroy the natural flow regimes and quality of the river water, total failure of regulatory agencies in controlling discharge of urban and industrial wastes into the Ganga and complete lack of sensitivity of the government on these issues.
“Government’s attitude forced the noted scientist and environmentalist to sit on fast. He has been on fast since January. But unfortunately the government was not even focusing on this (issue). This has hurt Agarwal who has decided to end his life,” Hazare added.
The prime minister has called a meeting of NGRBA in April.