Sacrifice and Survive

“Sacrifice and Survive”

By

J.L. Gupta

In Lucerne, I made a casual query from a man on the boat - 'where can I get some water to drink?' He picked up a paper tumbler, bent over the side railing, filled it up from the lake and offered me the drink. I was hesitant. He had not missed my reaction. So, he drank the water and said, "The Swiss lakes and rivers have the healthiest water in the world. It comes from the Alps.”

I recalled the words of my grandmother. Spoken in the mid fifties. The “water in this bottle is from Ganga. I had got it about ten years back. It is still fit for drinking. I use it only at the time of prayers.”

Decades have passed since then. Can we say today that the water in river Ganges or for that matter any other river or lake in India is potable? While the Swiss and many others can, we cannot. They have taken care of the environment; preserved the purity of the natural resources; saved the air, earth, environment and water from pollution. We have done just the opposite. We have plundered our natural resources. Destroyed the flora, fauna and the forests. Deprived the animal world of their natural habitats. Our air, environment and water are polluted. The lakes are going dry. The rivers have been reduced to dirty drains. The sub soil water has either vanished or is not fit for drinking. Still more, there are frequent reports that the grains and vegetables are loaded with carcinogenic elements. These are not fit for human consumption without being properly processed.

Is it not ironic that all this has happened despite the constitutional mandate in Articles 48A & 51A? We also have a plethora of legislations like “The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977 and other similar enactments relating to Air & Environment etc.; the creation of State and Central Pollution Control Boards; the Municipal Committees, Corporations and the so called Urban Development Authorities. The people have painfully borne the heavy financial burden of all these Authorities. But to no avail. The developers have acted as the destroyers. The protectors have miserably failed to perform. In fact, they have been the cause of a systematic deterioration. A drive along the river Ganga or Yamuna would show that the drains carrying the city waste are being discharged into the rivers despite the “Ganga Action Plan prepared by the Ministry of Environment & Forests in December 1984 for immediate reduction of pollution load on the river Ganga” and the constitution of the Central Ganga Authority in 1985 to oversee the implementation of the Ganga Action Plan by the Government.

Today, in this land of milk and honey, we cannot find a sip of potable water by the roadside. The hand pumps that used to have invigorating aqua in gallons have already gone dry. We get small bottles of ‘mineral’ water at a heavy price. During the college and university days, we never had to buy a bottle of water. Today, we have to. Why?

If the recent events are an indication, the politicians are selling the plum posts. The bureaucrats are buying them. Then the two survive by sacrificing.

What? Whom? The principles or the holy goat – the taxpayer?

Both. No discrimination