Govt agencies await funds from Centre for Kumbh

NASHIK : With various government agencies still awaiting central funds to be utilised to tackle issues such as the pollution of the Godavari and create infrastructure as part of next year’s Kumbh Mela, Shiv Sena MP from the city on Saturday said he would take up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) is supposed to get Rs 1052.61 crore sanctioned as part of the Kumbh Mela projects, of which the state government has to give Rs 350 crore.The Centre has denied to provide the funds and asked the civic body to generate the rest of the amounts. Until now, the state government has released Rs 220 crore to the NMC out of the Rs 350 crore. Only six months are left to wrap up all major projects for the religious event.
Godse, who had led a delegation to the Centre to seek Kumbh funds, had recently raised the issue with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley. But nothing seemed to materialise and Godse said he would now talk to Modi who would visit the city on Sunday.
“The Centre has declined to release funds for Kumbh Mela. I met Jaitley and told him that Kumbh Mela is a national event, which is held at only four cities in the country. The Centre gave us funds during the last Kumbh 12 years ago and it also gave amounts to Allahabad last year for Kumbh Mela. On September 16, Jaitley had assured that he would include it in the supplementary budget in November. I met him again recently. He said the government was in the process of formulating the guidelines for religious activities. I told him that the Kumbh Mela is going to be held nine months from now and all the works have to be completed before that. The guidelines for such events would take at least 3-4 months. I requested him to look into it. I have also written to him. I will meet Modi on Sunday and talk to him about it,” Godse said.
He added that he would also be talking to Modi about the Godavari Riverfront development on the lines of Sabarmati Riverfront.
Environment activists, on the other hand, are seeing red in the face as cleaning the river is part of the Kumbh projects and the Centre has not released any funds for it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in New York recently about his priority to clean River Ganga, but the Godavari, along which Kumbh Mela is scheduled in 2015, continues to flow murky.
“He has been speaking about cleaning River Ganga. But what about Godavari? How can you have Kumbh Mela Unless the river is healthy how can the Kumbh Mela be held? These funds will also have to be utilised for constructing sewage treatment plants or modifying the present STPs so that dirty water is not released into it,” said Rajesh Pandit, an environmental activist and one of the petitioners of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed against government officials for river pollution.
“This Godavari has been declared a dead river by the high court after it heard all the arguments and saw the facts produced and also the reports by NEERI. The court also asked the NMC to put up warning boards on the river banks reading that the river was unfit for human consumption and use,” said Pandit.
Magsaysay awardee water activist Rajendra Singh, who has been to the city number of times and has joined in the movement of the green activists, had written to the state government not to conduct the Kumbh Mela until the river is cleaned. “Kumbh Mela should not be held unless the river is cleaned and made healthy once again. It will be dangerous for the pilgrims’ health,” said Singh.