Swachch Bharat campaign in Varanasi sees only cosmetic changes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had selected the city of Varanasi as his constituency in the Lok Sabha elections and, after coming t power, had selected the city to be an exemplary one in respect to cleanliness. He had even led a Swachch Bharat campaign at Assi Ghat in Varanasi. There has been changes with the silt having been removed and, today, it is probably the cleanest ghat in Varanasi. Workers from Sulabh International are deputed to clean the ghat five times a day.
However, other ghats have not got similar treatment. At Ravi Das Ghat there are tonnes of garbage and sanitation workers struggle to take out big plastic bags from the river. They are ill equipped for the task.
This has been reported in news18.com dated 12 June 2016.

A machine has been deployed - it is called trash skimmer. The operator says he collects five tonnes of garbage every hour. And, these are only cosmetic changes because the problem goes much deeper. There are at least 1,000 factories in and around Varanasi which discharge harmful chemicals into sewage lines.
According to a professor who heads the Ganga Research Centre at Banaras Hindu University, the waste that is generated is at least three times the capacity of the three sewage treatment plants in the city. The River Ganga passes through five states and each of them has its own rules and regulations. There is a lack of coordination which is contributing to the failure of the mission.
Apart from industrial wastes, the burning of human bodies at the ghats is another major source of pollution. This is a religious practice and has been going on for centuries. Unless the government is serious and controls the flow of factory waste, garbage and human remains, cleaning of the ghats of Varanasi will witness only cosmetic changes.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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