A fortnight ago one of my friends on a social networking website tagged an old ragged, Black and White picture of a river. Though it was bit hard to identify the river shown in the image because the picture quality was very poor but whatever was visible and one could see was a full swing river having wide area surrounded by trees guarding and fanning the river (it’s a guess since the picture image was Black and White and not in Green) there was hardly any concrete structure visible in the image except a few historic buildings and high tombs of religious shrines probably of Temples. Though in the picture, on zoom one can also see some other small images i.e. a very few concrete buildings but they were far away and almost invisible in this image their presence diminishes in the over all picture of the river. After several failed guesses this scribe was helplessly compelled to ask the friend to identify the river in the image and the reply given by friend was a big surprise! This river was not Thames, Ganga, Jamuna or Brahmaputra but was our own river Tawi, the same river which is considered as identity of this region beyond Lakhanpur Border of the State, Yes outside the state Jammu is better known as “Jammu Tawi”.
Eyes and mind did not believe it, the title given to the image was “THE MAJESTIC RIVER TAWI” and the historic building that was visible in the image was Jammu’s own Mubarak Mandi Complex, the pride of Dogras, the monument for which the state government is now spending an estimated cost of Rs. 300 Crores for its renovation to give it a new life.
Anyhow, again a week back, the same friend tagged another picture, this time it was a high resolution colored image probably shot with a high rangefinder SLR professional camera, on a cursory look it was difficult to identify the subject of the image, though it was a clear high resolution picture. There were hundreds of box typed concrete structures and nearby a dry/dull drain flowing, this drain was almost negligible in the overall picture. The drain was full of filth, Plastics and Polythene and it was appearing that these concrete structures along with the pollutants were eagerly conspiring against this dry drain to permanently erase its existence and when this scribe realized the fact that this dry drain was the same old majestic River Tawi which was worshipped, he felt shocked and helpless over the apathy towards this river by none other than its own people . How could we, Jammuites, the children of this majestic river kill it or even dare to think about it.
Now, let’s come out of religious beliefs, emotions and faith and think practically, can Jammu afford to loose this river, obviously No ! Jammu depends on this river for number of reasons; this river is main source of natural construction minerals like Sand and Stone and caters more than 70 percent demand of the construction material of the city.
Even today, Tawi is the main source for fetching water for ever increasing population of the city and adjacent area.
This is apathy that being aware of every pros and cons, we Jammuites are yet trying to evade responsibility, factually we cannot afford to loose this river at least till the time we get an alternative of Tawi, which is obviously impossible, hence to save this river is a compulsion and in the best interest of everyone.
The state government and its agencies had have never ever bothered to save this river, the State Pollution Control Board or Jammu Municipal Corporation have not even erected any cautionary board urging the people not to throw garbage in the river, at least from the bridges of the river, as requested by this scribe.
Some 7-8 years back, the Tawi Got its 4th bridge, joining Jammu City, from press Club to Bikram Chowk and the Contract to raise this bridge was given to some Private Company. After completion of the construction work, the bridge was then taken over by the Public Works Department and unfortunately, due to criminal negligence of the PWD, even today, after more than 7—8 years the unwanted remains of construction work in shape of huge concrete structures are lying in center of the river causing smooth flow of the river, but none of us even bothered to ask the government and its agencies to lift these waste material from the river which is in tons of weight. Here again we the citizens are more culprit then anyone in insulting this beautiful and calm but productive river, it’s quite strange that at our home we do not allow even an atom of dust in our drawing/guest room and quite often use Vacuum Cleaners to take away even the last piece of dust from the smallest corner of the room but we do not utter even a single word against this negligence of the government departments where they completely ignored our historic river. The tone and language and wording of this scribe may appear emotional to some people but it’s harsh reality today that the river which had witnessed a glorious past is engulfed with dangers and facing an uncertain future. The future of Jammu still depends upon this historic river.
The sooner we realize the fact, More we can do to save it from further destruction and extinction not for anyone else but for our own identity not only historic but economical also.
If all of us take this wakeup call now then once again we can dream the same old majestic river surrounded by green trees fanning and guarding the river and this time we would not be guessing it because now a days with changing time of technology we can have a colored high resolution image and need not to preserve the same old, Black and White and ragged dull photograph.
Raman Sharma is an RTI Activist and founding member of ‘Save My Tawi’ initiative.
Early Times, 01/May/2012
Witnessed Glorious Past, Faces Uncertain Future
River Tawi, Now and Then ! |
| RAMAN SHARMA | 4/30/2012 11:51:36 PM |
|
A fortnight ago one of my friends on a social networking website tagged an old ragged, black and white picture of a river. Though it was bit hard to identify the river shown in the image because the picture quality was very poor but whatever was visible and one could see was a full swing river having wide area surrounded by trees guarding and fanning the river (it's a guess since the picture image was Black and White and not in Green) there was hardly any concrete structure visible in the image except a few historic buildings and high tombs of religious shrines probably of Temples. Though in the picture, on zoom one can also see some other small images i.e. a very few concrete buildings but they were far away and almost invisible in this image their presence diminishes in the over all picture of the river. After several failed guesses this scribe was helplessly compelled to ask the friend to identify the river in the image and the reply given by friend was a big surprise!
This river was not Thames, Ganga, Jamuna or Brahmaputra but was our own river Tawi, the same river which is considered as identity of this region beyond Lakhanpur Border of the State, Yes outside the state Jammu is better known as "Jammu Tawi". Eyes and mind did not believe it, the title given to the image was "THE MAJESTIC RIVER TAWI" and the historic building that was visible in the image was Jammu's own Mubarak Mandi Complex, the pride of Dogras, the monument for which the state government is now spending an estimated cost of Rs. 300 Crores for its renovation to give it a new life.
Anyhow, again a week back, the same friend tagged another picture, this time it was a high resolution colored image probably shot with a high range finder SLR professional camera, on a cursory look it was difficult to identify the subject of the image, though it was a clear high resolution picture. There were hundreds of box typed concrete structures and nearby a dry/dull drain flowing, this drain was almost negligible in the overall picture. The drain was full of filth, Plastics and Polythene and it was appearing that these concrete structures along with the pollutants were eagerly conspiring against this dry drain to permanently erase its existence and when this scribe realized the fact that this dry drain was the same old majestic River Tawi which was worshipped, he felt shocked and helpless over the apathy towards this river by none other than by its own people . How could we, Jammuites, the children of this majestic river kill it or even dare to think about it.
Now, let's come out of religious beliefs, emotions and faith and think practically, can Jammu afford to loose this river, obviously No ! Jammu depends on this river for number of reasons; this river is main source of natural construction minerals like Sand and Stone and caters more than 70 percent demand of the construction material of the city. Even today, Tawi is the main source for fetching water for ever increasing population of the city and adjacent area. This is apathy that being aware of every pros and cons, we Jammuites are yet trying to evade responsibility, factually we cannot afford to loose this river at least till the time we get an alternative of Tawi, which is obviously impossible, hence to save this river is a compulsion and in the best interest of everyone. The state government and its agencies had have never ever bothered to save this river, the State Pollution Control Board or Jammu Municipal Corporation have not even erected any cautionary board urging the people not to throw garbage in the river, at least from the bridges of the river, as requested by this scribe. Some 7-8 years back, the Tawi got its 4th bridge, joining Jammu City, from press Club to Bikram Chowk and the Contract to raise this bridge was given to some Private Company. After completion of the construction work, the bridge was then taken over by the Public Works Department and unfortunately, due to criminal negligence of the PWD, even today, after more than 7-8 years the unwanted remains of construction work in shape of huge concrete structures are lying in center of the river causing smooth flow of the river, but none of us even bothered to ask the government and its agencies to lift these waste material from the river which is in tons of weight. Here again we the citizens are more culprit then anyone in insulting this beautiful and calm but productive river, it's quite strange that at our home we do not allow even an atom of dust in our drawing/guest room and quite often use Vacuum Cleaners to take away even the last piece of dust from the smallest corner of the room but we do not utter even a single word against this negligence of the government departments where they completely ignored our historic river. The tone and language and wording of this scribe may appear emotional to some people but it's harsh reality today that the river which had witnessed a glorious past is engulfed with dangers and facing an uncertain future. The future of Jammu still depends upon this historic river.The sooner we realize the fact, More we can do to save it from further destruction and extinction not for anyone else but for our own identity not only historic but economical also.
If all of us take this wakeup call now then once again we can dream the same old majestic river surrounded by green trees fanning and guarding the river and this time we would not be guessing it because now a days with changing time of technology we can have a colored high resolution image and need not to preserve the same old, Black and White and ragged dull photograph.
Raman Sharma is an RTI activist and founding member of 'Save My Tawi' initiative.
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| Written by Raman Sharm |
| Monday, 30 April 2012 21:58 |
A fortnight ago one of my friends on a social networking website tagged an old ragged, black and white picture of a river. Though it was bit hard to identify the river shown in the image because the picture quality was very poor but whatever was visible and one could see was a full swing river having wide area surrounded by trees guarding and fanning the river (it's a guess since the picture image was black and white and not in green) there was hardly any concrete structure visible in the image except a few historic buildings and high tombs of religious shrines probably of temples. Though in the picture, on zoom one can also see some other small images i.e. a very few concrete buildings but they were far away and almost invisible in this image their presence diminishes in the over all picture of the river. After several failed guesses this scribe was helplessly compelled to ask the friend to identify the river in the image and the reply given by friend was a big surprise! This river was not Thames, Ganga, Jamuna or Brahmaputra but was our own river Tawi, the same river which is considered as identity of this region beyond Lakhanpur Border of the State, Yes outside the state Jammu is better known as "Jammu Tawi".
Eyes and mind did not believe it, the title given to the image was "The majestic river Tawi" and the historic building that was visible in the image was Jammu's own Mubarak Mandi Complex, the pride of Dogras, the monument for which the state government is now spending an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore for its renovation to give it a new life.
Anyhow, again a week back, the same friend tagged another picture, this time it was a high resolution colored image probably shot with a high rangefinder SLR professional camera, on a cursory look it was difficult to identify the subject of the image, though it was a clear high resolution picture. There were hundreds of box typed concrete structures and nearby a dry/dull drain flowing, this drain was almost negligible in the overall picture. The drain was full of filth, Plastics and Polythene and it was appearing that these concrete structures along with the pollutants were eagerly conspiring against this dry drain to permanently erase its existence and when this scribe realized the fact that this dry drain was the same old majestic River Tawi which was worshipped, he felt shocked and helpless over the apathy towards this river by none other than its own people. How could we, Jammuites, the children of this majestic river kill it or even dare to think about it. Now, let's come out of religious beliefs, emotions and faith and think practically, can Jammu afford to loose this river, obviously No ! Jammu depends on this river for number of reasons; this river is main source of natural construction minerals like Sand and Stone and caters more than 70 per cent demand of the construction material of
the city.
Even today, Tawi is the main source for fetching water for ever increasing population of the city and adjacent area.
This is apathy that being aware of every pros and cons, we Jammuites are yet trying to evade responsibility, factually we cannot afford to loose this river at least till the time we get an alternative of Tawi, which is obviously impossible, hence to save this river is a compulsion and in the best interest of everyone. The state government and its agencies had have never ever bothered to save this river, the State Pollution Control Board or Jammu Municipal Corporation have not even erected any cautionary board urging the people not to throw garbage in the river, at least from the bridges of the river, as requested by this scribe. Some 7-8 years back, the Tawi Got its 4th bridge, joining Jammu City, from Press Club to Bikram Chowk and the contract to raise this bridge was given to some private company. After completion of the construction work, the bridge was then taken over by the Public Works Department and unfortunately, due to criminal negligence of the PWD, even today, after more than 7-8 years the unwanted remains of construction work in shape of huge concrete structures are lying in center of the river causing hurdles in the smooth flow of the river, but none of us even bothered to ask the government and its agencies to lift these waste material from the river which is in tons of weight. Here again we the citizens are more culprit then anyone in insulting this beautiful and calm but productive river, it's quite strange that at our home we do not allow even an atom of dust in our drawing/guest room and quite often use vacuum cleaners to take away even the last piece of dust from the smallest corner of the room but we do not utter even a single word against this negligence of the government departments where they completely ignored our historic river. The tone and language and wording of this scribe may appear emotional to some people but it's harsh reality today that the river which had witnessed a glorious past is engulfed with dangers and facing an uncertain future. The future of Jammu still depends upon this historic river.
The sooner we realize the fact, more we can do to save it from further destruction and extinction not for anyone else but for our own identity not only historic but economical also. If all of us take this wakeup call now then once again we can dream the same old majestic river surrounded by green trees fanning and guarding the river and this time we would not be guessing it because now a days with changing time of technology we can have a colored high resolution image and need not to preserve the same old, black and white and ragged dull photograph.
(The writer is an RTI activist and founding member of 'Save My Tawi' initiative.)
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Raman Sharma is a dedicated Jammu based RTI activist and journalist . With a focus on transparency and accountability, with his writing he has contributed for various credible newspapers and magazines in the region. He is amongst the first few batches who completed Certificate Course in RTI from the Centre for Good Governance in Hyderabad, in collaboration with the Government of India.
Sharma is actively involved in education and advocacy, having delivered guest lectures on RTI , Good Governance at different universities and educational institutions to empower students. Additionally, in collaboration with the JK Institute of Management and Public Administration (JK IMPA), he has also remained resource person in training programs for District Officers, Public Information Officers, Ministerial staff of different departments, promoting awareness and effective implementation of RTI/PSGA . In association with the CHRI he also remained instrumental in training for civil society members on the Transparency Law.
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