HYDERABAD: Political parties in Telangana went out of their way to woo voters with several promises aimed to make their lives better. Experts, however, opined that all parties have ignored environment protection which is crucially important for people’s good life.
The problem, according to environment expert Donthi Narasimha Reddy, is that natural resources are seen as investment opportunities as with the case of land in Telangana. “Little do these parties understand that water is related to land. Pollution is not just an urban issue, it hits rural areas too.”
“The focus on increasing income for the state trumps everything else for political parties. They do not realise that resources cannot be robbed from the environment and something can be sought to be given back to the people,” he said.
Stressing on land becoming increasingly a scarce public resource, Narasimha Reddy said, “Access to land is being hampered due to high pricing policy of the government. Already 60 per cent people are landless. They can’t even build a house because land is getting concentrated in the hands of a few people,” he said.
Political parties see themselves as benefactors of environmental destruction, he said, adding the focus of Telangana government on urbanisation is a model where inequality is built in, which in turn will impact the environment and result in its degradation.
“Just look at the number of cars on the roads these days. Cars are an indicator of how power is shifting over 10 other types of vehicles on the road,” he added.
Prof Purushottam Reddy, a noted environment activist, said not a single party talked about depletion of natural resources. “For instance, Telangana is being looted out of its sand, lakes are being encroached upon. The problem is that political parties are funded by corporations or those with business interests who do not care about the environment and have become tools in their hands,” he said.
“We have been demanding for a long time that the government of the day submit a ‘natural resources balance sheet’ to the Assembly but no one does. And local authorities empowerment is needed for environmental protection. The GHMC is the biggest urban agglomeration in Telangana but cannot decide on who its commissioner will be, cannot appoint a chief of the city police, or fire services, or take a call on who will head the water supply system,” he said.
“If political parties want to protect the environment, and ensure sustainable development, power should be decentralised but the government does not want to do that. Just look at health. Does GHMC have any control on this topic which is related to environmental health? No,” he said.
He also said all political parties must commit themselves to set up an Environment Protection Authority as the Pollution Control Board is toothless and does nothing to protect the environment.
Lubna Sarwath, who heads Save Our Lakes and has been on the forefront of the fight to protect the city's water bodies, said the environment is not a priority for any party.
However, she credited the Congress for including in its manifesto its plan to strengthen the three-tier system of local bodies and that they will be assigned responsibilities, funds and management of local development works.
This, she said, would mean decisions taken from the ground up would involve local communities, who will have a say on how their local environment is and how they want it to be.
