Can IIT plans save our rivers?
Can the IITs prepare a blueprint to save our polluted rivers? Water experts believe the contrary. The problem facing our leading rivers including — the Ganga and Yamuna — are governance and management issues which relate directly to the need to take hard decisions.
Manoj Misra, heading the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, beleives the water sharing agreement between six riparian states including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and UP in the mid-nineties resulted in the “death knell” of this river. “Six states using the Yamuna water has resulted in the river being left with little water to ensure a natural flow. Once the flow is destroyed, the river is not in a position to regenerate itself,” said Mr Misra.
The other problem is the massive construction of dams which has also destroyed their flow.
Himanshu Thakkar from the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People attributes the worsening state of our rivers to issues of malgovernance. “At present, 2400 million litres per day of untreated sewage is being dumped into the Yamuna. The situation will only worsen in the next decade when the city’s population is expected to go up to 2.31 crore,” he said.
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SC to cops: Follow narcotic provisions
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, Dec. 17
The Supreme Court has asked all the state police chiefs to direct their officials to duly comply with the statutory provisions on raid and seizure of narcotics as failure to adhere to them leads to acquittal of the accused in several cases.
The court gave the direction while dealing with section 42 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, which pertains to the “power of entry, search, seizure and arrest without warrant or authorisation.” The section also says that when an officer receives any secret information about narcotics, he/she shall have to inform his/her superior of-ficer immediately about it.
“We consider it the duty of the court to direct the director general of police concerned of all the states to issue appropriate instructions directing the investigating officers to duly comply with the provisions of Section 42 of NDPS Act at the appropriate stage to avoid such acquittals,” said a bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and Madan B. Lokur. They said, “it is the incumbent duty of every investigating officer to comply with the same in true substance and spirit in consonance with the law....”
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