GREEN COPS

[Rajat Bansal]

I hope that this write up, might get noticed by some policymakers who wish to implement environmental laws in practical India.

Today, in the morning when I was on my way to my office (in New Delhi), I came across a storm water drain. The drain was carrying effluent water with dark green colour and strong odour. On the further way ahead, my mind was completely occupied by the fate of that effluent, its effects on the water bodies, on the flora and fauna of that water body and ultimately on the man who consume those fishes or water. My mind got further irritation when I realized that there must be hundred such nallas in the city and thousands of sources of such effluents, which ultimately get their space in the so called SACRED river YAMUNA.

According to my best of the knowledge, we have a Yamuna Action Plan implemented since past …. years but still no significant improvement in the state of the river. What I strongly believe is that we are wasting our money, energy and time on the rehabilitation of the river and not doing anything on stopping such effluents(at source) from coming into the mainstream.

I do not challenge the national laws and statutes for environment protection in India, but I question the practical implementation of these. We have a robust system of environmental clearances for all the industries and the industries are supposed to submit their environmental performance on annual basis to the ministry or pollution control boards. But the main loop hole is how industries manipulate their environmental performance and there is no regular check available from the government.

My suggestion here is that we should have GREEN COPS available at all industrial zones of the country who would have a direct reporting to the central ministry and any misconduct should result into the action against the industry and the state pollution control board. GREEN POSTS should be accessible by the common man, where anyone can report any environmental misconduct observed by him in the area.

The qualifications, eligibility, compensation of the green cops can be determined as such that they must be self motivated and environmental conscious for an effective line of control.

I just wanted to convey my thoughts to the right people, if in anyways it can be of help to the nation or our MOTHER EARTH.

Green regards
RAjat Bansal

[Ravi Menon]

Yes, we must involve people at the grass root level to save our mother earth. We promote and setup local environment action groups under the umbrella of INDIA TREES FOUNDATION, to involve the local residents to be the watchdogs or green-cops to bring to the notice , also help wakeup, the authorities.

[M.Vijay Kumar]

It is a great idea to moot such activity. As mentioned the legal hurdles and the awareness in the public and cooperation is lacking and the authorities do not act quickly. Need to have some motivation and real good legislation for informing and penalizing the culprits immediately on detection.

[GOPI KANTA GHOSH]

Good suggestions...must create awareness to create pressure...

[Dipali Gupta]

Dear Mr. Rajat,

This matter needs to be taken up with the respective pollution control boards and also, this needs rapid movement as in the idea has to be spread rapidly and this will happen only by talking about this at the right places. There is a group Awaaz which takes up similar issues.. How about we raise this matter there?This is just a start and it is still an idea.. Since you are the one who started this idea on this network, i cannot copy content and hence asking your opinion on the same.

Regards,

Dipali.

[Dev Balaji]

Dear Mr. Rajat,

I really appreciate your idea, But already "GREEN COPS" exist in Karnataka, which is been managed by a Government apex body..called "Karnataka State Pollution Control Board", hopefully there must be one in Delhi also you may have to check up with Delhi Pollution Control Board. May be why don't you take to the Board.. May be they may do the needful..

[BRAHMISHTAN]

Rajat i totally accept with you the need of the hour is to act and implement the best possible actions, but, somewhere down the lane i feel that all what we aspire to do in making MOTHER EARTH a better place to live, just dies down as a dream of aspirations. We are too rigid by system to accept any changes, having said that i don't mean that change will never occur. things will change but very gradually and slowly ( i say this after facing lot many failures trying to keep our environment better ) Unfortunately, we need to change rapidly. Anyways, without buckling lets join hands to make EARTH A BETTER PLACE