Activists form own draft law for Ganga protection

Unhappy with the Centre's draft law on Ganga protection and its notification brought out in October to regulate minimum environmental flow in the river, a group of scientists and activists have prepared a draft law of their own.

Dubbed as the People's Ganga Act, 2018, a draft of the law was discussed in New Delhi on Monday, which also saw former union environment minister Jairam Ramesh, Samajwadi Party MP Rewati Raman Singh and Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Tamta of the Congress in attendance.

Seer-turned-scientist GD Agarwal was closely involved with the formulation of the draft Bill along with scientist and environmentalist Ravi Chopra among others. Agarwal had died in October this year after his 111-day fast-unto death seeking a strong law on Ganga protection, cancellation of three hydropower projects -- under construction and proposed on Ganga's head streams Alaknanda, and formation of a Ganga Bhakt Parishad.

Aviral Pravah (Natural flow), Nirmal Pravah (Pristine flow) and Gangatva, the unique self-purifying and bacteriocidal properties of the river form some of most crucial components of the draft Bill. The Bill seeks to create a regime that will not only stop clearance for any new dam or barrage on Ganga but also decommission existing hydropower and irrigation projects that leads to abstraction of water.

The Bill also seeks creation of a National Commission of Ganga which will comprise of independent, non-governmental experts as chairperson, a retired judge of the high court and six independent members, among others. The objective of the commission would be to form a detailed plan to achieve natural and pristine flow in the river.

Activists said that the Bill was still being drafted and they would campaign for it to be pushed in Parliament through MPs who support it. The government's draft law on Ganga protection is expected to be tabled in the Parliament during the ongoing winter session and has provisions to penalise pollution of the river and regulation of dams.