Interview By- Rahul Bali, Senior Journalist and Media Columnist, New Delhi
Today, all of us feel stressed under the prevailing dreadful conditions of the environment. Since Independence, the respective governments have formulated various environment friendly policies and schemes to restrict further degradation of the environment. Yet, nothing substantial has been achieved till date. What are your views and suggestions to the central and state governments?
India has every kind of law and especially related to environment. Why things have not been achieved substantially is because of implementation of the law and strictures. The laxity in implementing the law has been the biggest hindrance and what we are suffering today is entirely because of it. Our suggestions for the Government will be:
- Environment Protection and law implementation should be taught right from the school days and it should be built into the culture so that citizens know the value of respecting mother nature
- Law enforcement should be very strict with penalties going more than 100 times as then only people will be scared. If you put in a meagre penalty amount, it does not deter people from breaking the law
- The government should open its think tank and open to “out-of-the box” ideas to help save the environment. Newer technologies are coming up and should be implemented at a vigorous scale.
- Environmental protection should be the main feature of the political parties manifesto’s and citizens should demand a clear cut action plan from them for clean air, water and food.
- Existing policies need to be amended to suit the times and gravity of the situation.
There are quite a number of non-government organizations working in the field of environment in India but almost all of them blame the corrupt bureaucratic system and slow implementation of the schemes for the protection of the environment. Since you are working closely with the foreign companies’ to understand and learn new methods of saving the Earth ,what new methods based on your experience and expertise would you suggest to the government of India to restrict further degradation of the environment?
Respecting nature, environment and cleanliness should be made an integral part of our culture and system. It is not that we Indians don’t know how to protect the environment as is evident from the fact that when they go abroad, they become the most law abiding citizens. They will not litter and respect nature and natural resources. The fear of law in a foreign land makes then respect the nature. The same fear of law should be imbibed into them here. Respect for cleanliness and expecting a clean place should be made a fundamental right and then only the bureaucratic system will follow the implementation of the law.
It is blamed that any political party that is in power has a vision for only five years. The role of National Green Tribunal (NGT) or any such body is commendable yet the implementation of the policies at the local level is a great challenge especially in rural India. How do you compare India as a developing country in terms of Science and Technology with the highly technical world of the Western nations?
India as a developing country has made strides in Science and Technology especially in the Space program, where we are at par with the Western World but in Healthcare, Environmental protection and other areas of hygiene…we have only been western copiers. We are not inventors of technology but are early adaptors of technology and copy it: as it is R&D should be imbibed into our system right from School days so that children know the value of same. In the western World children are encouraged to be earn money from school days and while doing this process, by the time they pass the school, they have failed and become successful at least 2-3 times. The importance of using the brain and doing research to get better results and better pay settles into them from an early stage.
In the past, we have seen that highly technical professionals prefer to go to the United of America, UK or China for work and most of them settled permanently. Why is it so? What are your suggestions to retain technical professionals in India to strengthen Research and Development (R&D)?
The respect for research, the atmosphere, resources provided/available and the compensation available to match the work attracts our professionals to work there. The companies or large industrial houses should encourage Research and Development (R&D) and people should be handsomely rewarded for their works. Research should lead to product development and once that is visible, it will encourage professionals to stay back and develop here itself.
As you know the government of India has already spent millions of Rupees on the cleanliness of river Ganga yet there are several challenges. What are your views on this issue?
The challenge faced in cleaning Ganga are:
- Cleaning the waste at source and not getting the same accumulated and falling into the river
- Using the right technology: Sewage Treatment Plant Technologies (STP’s) are not the solution. Water produced from STP’s which is not fit for drinking: how can such a water be pushed into the river.
- Strict environmental laws for the industries creating waste water should be implemented
- Out of box solution, like our technology and propositions should be accepted and provisions made to accept them. Simply following the age old systems will not help this catastrophic situation.
In the coming months Ag Dauters is going to set up a plant in Himachal Pradesh (HP) and in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Uttar Pradesh (UP) is known for political instability. In an atmosphere of political instability and rampant corruption how do you think your company would sustain for a long time?
The kind of technology what we have brought in and the kind of proposition we have: to clean the waste and make the state into a Zero Waste state: no political party should have an opposition to our proposal and any kind of instability will not have an impact as what we are doing is now: fighting for a clean basic: water, food, air and energy and these things are above any political arena and everyone understands these catastrophic situation with our waste.
To support your projects, would your company invite foreign corporations to invest in India? Do you feel there is dearth of skilled workforce? What is your assessment about “Make in India” flagship programme?
Path breaking technologies and solutions have to be invited for our large environmental problems and since these solutions are available in the western world, companies have to be invited. Newer concepts and solutions always help the local population in developing their skills and help them into OOB thinking. Further the Indian population numbers make us a very large market and localization of the machines and parts should be encouraged and platform provided and this will enhance Make in India program.
Do you print a Newsletter or a Magazine for the purpose of generating awareness among the people of India to protect the environment?
As on date we do not print any such literature but we do generate social media snippets which make people aware of the advantages of energy creation from waste and protecting environment.
