Ganga People Demand

1. Adopt the standards settled by the IIT consortium Report. Dump the CWC report.

2. The political parties and their governments make it official that they are open to informed dialogue for no dams on Ganga as an objective and to begin with notify its decision of no more new dams on Ganga forthwith and abandon all projects not yet commissioned.

3. Stop Singoli Bhatwari; Pipalkoti-Vishnugad and Vishnugad Tapovan dams on Ganga.

4. Place National River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Bill, 2019 in public domain before being placed before Parliament so that people can ensure the same is driven only by the good of the Ganga. We do not agree to walk down a blind alley;

5. Ban dumping of garbage into or on the banks of Ganga and other rivers with immediate effect;

6. Redevelop water level restoration programmes around the entire stretch of Ganga and stop the waterways project on river Ganga;

7. Make environment and ecology a major part of the engineering curriculum and for the time being ban the deployment of not so qualified engineers from making any engineering plans for Ganga till they acquire that education;

8. Develop adequate and effective water treatment and purifying processes in the cities in harmony with environment needs and attain zero waste discharge into rivers status asap;

9. Develop wetlands and waste land techniques for water purification and discourage the use of chemicals in households as that dumps chemicals into sewers and consequently pollutes water bodies of the cities;

10. Launch scrutiny of urban development plans across the top 10 polluted cities in a time bound plan and stop any work on further development of new cities till such time. Based on the findings of the scrutiny revamp and reformulate a fresh approach to urban development;

11. Launch horizontal urban development and ensuring every new city is surrounded by a forest around its periphery and further buffer of few kilometers of agriculture lands between two cities on either side. No new city be developed without stating the point of optimal use of land beyond which no further use shall be allowable;

12. Members of general public must be appointed by rotation through random selection through computer punching systems on any river plan from each town or city on the banks of Ganga periodically to ensure that public participation in policy conceptualization and making happens in public eye;

13. Establish local public volunteer units inviting all members of general public to take part in rejuvenating the rivers under stress with a right to correct the wrongs, if any, in carrying out the plans;

14. Declare that all natural resources including Ganga, belong to the public and public has a right to participate in its safekeeping and watch and government departments are not having any better entitlement to safe keep the same. For this the standards must be set and placed in public domain;

15.Declare land around 5 km on either side of river banks as green zone with no permissible development of housing etc thereon. The existing structures be asked to move and relocate accordingly;

16. Ban sand and boulder mining and garbage dumping on Ganga as also on other rivers and state must acknowledge and accede to the language of culture and spirituality to understand the purpose of process of technology and science.

17. Towards these aims continuous efforts in form of firm and co-operative dialogue with statutory and local government agencies through transparent issue voicing process be initiated and necessary committees be formed at the conclave with members who volunteer for the same and make the effort a ongoing rotational public engagement by all non violent means within the ambit of law and peacefully with a positive solution oriented approach.

18. Form a research Committee that continues to update likely solutions that can be reasoned and impressed upon the government to be adopted.

19. Say no to power bullying by state and state players in matters of natural resources of the country and mass movement of the people. A committee to ensure these results are formed and its ambition described.

20. Such other as may be discovered through deliberations and approved by the Conclave or immitted therefrom as the case may be.