Work On Ganga Expressway Project Continues Despite High Court Ban

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The hasty manner, in which the Uttar Pradesh government had granted environmental clearance to the Ganga Express Way Project, prompted the High Court to impose a ban on its implementation on 29th May, 2009, till further notice.

Serious aspersions are been cast against the haphazard working of the government, on this important issue. Neither the project report nor the `environment impact assessment' report was made available during the August 2007 public hearings. On top of this, the `state environment impact assessment authority' and the state level appraisal committee took just one day to take the major decision of granting permission to the project.

Professor U.K.Choudhury of the department of Civil Engineering of B.H.U. has expressed the fear that on its completion, the project is likely to increase the possibility of floods, rather than control them. Apart from this, the emissions from the vehicles plying on the expressway would add to the pollution of the Ganges river (the amount of oxygen dissolved in its waters would decrease and the bio oxygen demand would increase). The water level will also be affected.

The acquisition of 27,000 hectares of land, required for the project, will affect the agriculture of the region and impact the livelihood of the farmers. It will also create serious displacement problems for them.

During his tour of Rae Bareli and Pratapgarh districts, Rajendra Singh, the famous `water man', found that the process of land acquisition continues unabated, despite the ban by the High Court.

We demand an immediate stop to all the work related to this project, till the U.P. State Government obtains proper environmental clearances from different agencies and also the clearance from the Central Government.

 

Rajendra Singh                                            Dr.Sandeep Pandey                  Arundhati Dhuru

Magsaysay Awardee (2001)                      Magsaysay Awardee (2002) ---- Narmada Bachao Andolan

Jal Biradari                                                          Asha Parivar