Politicians across the spectrum in poll-bound West Bengal stood on the same page with environmentalists, admitting that critical environmental, climate change, and linked health issues do not get enough space and priority in the manifestos of any political party, but sought to portray developmental challenges as the key reason behind the trend.
Environmentalists and health experts, however, blamed policy failure, lack of political will and prioritisation as well as corruption as the key drivers behind the trend.
On Saturday, a conglomerate of organisations including The Plurals, the Bengal environment Journalists Platform and non-profit Environment Governed Integrated Organisation organised a meeting called ‘Politics meets Paribesh’ in Kolkata press club; which was attended by frontline political personalities of the state as well as more than 50 environment and health experts from various parts of the state. Senior journalists also participated in the meeting.
The air pollution in both urban and rural set up forcing reduction in life span and health problems, climate change threat across West Bengal particularly in Sundarbans, Kolkata and north Bengal, degradation and poor planning within rivers; push for chemicals and fertilisers in agricultural practices, noise pollution including rampant violation regarding fireworks and DJ, ground water depletion mainly due to illegal water extraction, waste management; and above all, a tendency of the administration to go slow on environmental violations; were flagged of as key concerns by the activists.
“We have collected all opinions and will soon send a demand charter to all the political parties,” said Dulal Bose, a physician, former sheriff of Kolkata and president of EnGIO post the meeting.
Back and forth
“It’s a fact that environment and linked health issues are yet to receive the attention in the manifesto of political parties that it deserves but our party Trinamul Congress has made significant strides in this respect over the last 15 years. In this year’s manifesto, we listed key issues from stopping Ganga erosion, more mangrove plantation to promotion of solar,” said Debasis Kumar, a MLA and Trinamul Congress leader.
Kumar however accepted that the dredging of canals, an important task for drainage, could not be done fully but sought to lob the responsibility back to the previous left regime by claiming that the illegal settlements allowed in canal banks during the era as the spoiler.
“Left politics always supports environmental agendas” countered state CPM secretary Md Salim, former MP, and blamed both the BJP led union government and TMC led state government for gross environmental violation. “In one side the union government is not doing anything effective to save Ganga, on the other side the state government is discontinuing trams and penalising people for using cycles when both are promoted elsewhere in the world for countering climate change,” pointed out Salim. Manoj Bhattacharya, a senior leader from RSP, another left party, blamed the Modi led union government for inadequate climate action and the state for undertaking environmentally risky Deucha Panchami coal mine project in Birbhum apart from indifference to river conservation.
Environmental violators remain insular to regulatory action
Pradip Bhattacharya from Congress accepted that the environment violators are quite powerful and admitted actions are often not taken against them despite judicial orders, Jawhar Sarkar, retired bureaucrat and former Trinamul MP, elaborated how the noise violations and water body filling has become rampant in the state and underlined the threat to Sunderbans. “ A green demand charter should go from the conglomerate to all the political parties before election so that they can influence their campaign; and then it needs to be followed up after election with the new government,” opined Sarkar.
Omprakash Mishra, an international relations professor, observed that lack of dependence on science and too much technology is proving the undoing. “Its easy to hold the political parties responsible but the more important job is to probe the real reasons”.
Sovandeb Chattapadhyay, senior Trinamul leader and minister, opined that political parties and leaders should work unitedly to counter the environmental and climatic hazards. “However, I must confess that it is easier said than done. In a country like us you need infrastructure development and this is bound to bring pressure on your natural resources, your environment,” adds Chattopadhyay.
Sankar Ghosh of BJP, a candidate at Siliguri constituency in north Bengal, held ruling Trinamul Congress responsible for a range of environmental violations in north bengal.
Malay Tiwari of CPIML flagged off the ordeal of the people linked to highly polluted waste management.