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| Pollution-free Devika a distant dream | | |  Ashwani Sharma
Early Times Report
Udhampur, May 23: The hope of local residents that sacred Devika river will be free from pollution is dying due to snail pace of work and frequent changes being made on the Devika beautification project.
“Apart from making frequent changes in initial blueprints of the project, low quality work has messed entire beautification project”, claimed Rohit Padha—an RTI Activist adding that Devika river is of great historical and spiritual importance and is popular as ‘The younger sister of Ganges’.
“The river has fame and importance in Udhampur and Jammu and a dip in it is considered to be of spiritual benefits but the scourge of pollution has not spared even this important river originating from Beni Sangh in Sudhmahadev,” he maintained.
“After efforts of NGOs and locals the work on the project namely ‘Pollution Abatement of River Devika and River Tawi at Udhampur Town’ under the National River Conservation Plan was started by the Urban Environmental Engineering Department at Devika Ghat in Udhampur in 2019 but due to snail’s pace of work it failed meet the deadline in stipulated time,” said Aman Sharma—a social activist.
He said that according to Urban Environmental Engineering Department (UEED), the project worth Rs. 186.74 crore based on 90:10 funding pattern between the Centre and the State included creation of sewerage network of 128.41 km along with 3 STPs (Sewerage Treatment Plants) so as to prevent pollution of Devika and at the same time to ensure that no untreated sewerage reaches the holy River.
Sources said that J&K government initiated the process to impose Rs 2 crore fine on Bridge Gopal Constructions (BGC) New Delhi engaged in the work on River Devika Rejuvenation Project and cut the cost from around Rs 173 crore worth work which might be assigned to another company.
Advocate Rahul Jandial said, “In order to deviate the discharge of waste water from households, the work of laying sewerage pipelines was started and for this majority of the lanes and by-lanes in Udhampur were dug out without coordinating with the concerned department due to which majority of people living in 21 Wards of Udhampur are facing problems as two different pipes are being used in the project which are of narrow diameter of 8 inch and 4 inch.” |
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