Varanasi: The seriousness of the government machinery in executing plans was exposed at a meeting convened by the irrigation department here on Thursday. Many officials failed to attend the meeting.
The meeting was meant to discuss the shifting of tortoise sanctuary and saving the ghats of Banaras from erosion. It was a follow up exercise of the meeting convened by the chief secretary in Lucknow on June 19. A committee comprising engineers, IIT professors and officials of different departments was constituted to examine the issue and submit a report for action. The eight-member team is headed the chief engineer (Sone), irrigation department.
Chief engineer (Sone) Pradeep Kumar said Thursday's meeting was called to discuss the study of erosion under the ghat steps, protection of ghats, permission for sand mining in tortoise sanctuary and its shifting. But no official from forest department and Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC), Patna, took part in it.
For the past several years, local experts, river scientists, boatmen and different organization had been trying to draw the attention of authorities towards the adverse impact of tortoise sanctuary, like the increasing height of sand bed on the opposite bank of the river, which started posing threat to the ghats. Taking note of it, the district administration formed a committee comprising engineers and officials of different departments, including Central Water Commission, PWD, irrigation, Varanasi Municipal Corporation, Varanasi Development Authority, forest and also experts from civil engineering department of Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, in 2013. The committee surveyed the 7-km stretch of Ganga between Ramnagar Fort and Malviya Bridge, which was declared Tortoise Sanctuary on December 21, 1989 under the Ganga Action Plan launched in 1986. The Wildlife (Conservation) Act 1972 restricts sand mining or any other activity that violates its norm in the sanctuary area. It resulted in increasing the depth of river on the ghat side and erosion under the steps of ghats.
The increasing height of sand dunes on the opposite bank of the river started threatening the riverfront that has an unbroken chain of ghats. It caused erosion under the stone steps that posed a serious threat to historic buildings. According to river scientist and retired professor of BHU UK Choudhary, a major portion of riverfront in Manikarnika Ghat area would cave in if no remedial measure is taken urgently. The pressure on the ghats could be ease by removing the sand deposited along the opposite bank.
