I don't know how long this will be able to go on, for as soon as any real projects are planned, money is needed, and once money is involved, there has to be an organization accountable for those moneys. Of course, some of the activities that are going on now are being paid for directly out of pocket by individual parties, but that will not be able to continue for long.
As Katie Walter reports, the Yamuna Bridge issue continues to be fought out in the courts. However, Jagannath points out that though the issue galvanized foreign opinion, as seen on the Save Yamuna Save Vrindavan Facebook page, locally it has not had the same effect. This is problematic. Part of the reason is that there has been no real concerted effort to get the message out, but another aspect of it resides in some personal issues.
The FOV building is across the street from the Monghyr (or Munger) Raja temple (Bhaktivedanta Sadhu Maharaj's establishment) and was indeed originally built and owned by one of the Monghyr queens.
There is still a small Radha-Krishna temple in the building, as you can see here.
The main FOV activities at present include cleaning some parts of the town and helping with specific cleaning projects. I personally find this somewhat improper, as these are jobs that the municipality should be doing and the involvement of NGO's gives the public sector the right to wash its hands of responsibility. FOV has only limited capacity to clean the streets and neighborhoods of the town. Some other NGO's like Food For Life Vrindavan (FFLV) are also doing work in this regard, but the overall effect seem to be minimal.
As such, FOV hires quite a few people, I did not get the number. They are also looking for ways to recycle plastics, making baskets and other interesting products with the polyethylene bags that are gathered from the streets. After washing them of course.
Finally, it is worth mentioning their worm composting project, which also brings in some income, as the fertilizer is of high quality. These are all very admirable projects, whose scope needs considerable widening and support.
It may be said that the lack of a central garbage dump (though there is an official one near the Pagal Baba temple) means that there is little or no scavenger industry as in most poor countries in the world. One often hears of the great garbage dumps in Cairo or Manila. But here, the garbage seems to be evenly distributed in every empty plot of land, indiscriminately.
The idea to do the greening of Kishor Van was Jagannath's idea, and it is a good one, as is the current policy of having meetings in different places every week in order to involve a wider group of people. The Kishor Van project will also be conducted under the auspices of Friends of Vrindavan.
Next week, on Wednesday, the BVHA meeting will be held at Vamshi Bat, and representatives of the various local temples will be invited.
As Katie Walter reports, the Yamuna Bridge issue continues to be fought out in the courts. However, Jagannath points out that though the issue galvanized foreign opinion, as seen on the Save Yamuna Save Vrindavan Facebook page, locally it has not had the same effect. This is problematic. Part of the reason is that there has been no real concerted effort to get the message out, but another aspect of it resides in some personal issues.
In fact, the bridge issue has become so associated with Mr. K.P.S. Gill's name that almost any mention of the bridge immediately produces a visceral reaction in the minds of many local people. This is in fact made worse by the fact that Western voices, like mine and Paramadvaiti Maharaj's, are also seen as being outsiders' voices and therefore suspect.
Jagannath recognized this and decided to run a different strategy. As the original members of BVHA have practically speaking moved into the background, he is in a perfect position to implement that strategy. The bridge issue has taken a back seat and the wider issues of heritage and environmental restoration have taken the fore. Gradually, more people are getting involved and representatives of many of the major Hindu associations in Vrindavan are in attendance at BVHA meetings.
It is my hope that the worldwide interest in Vrindavan's future, which was generated by the bridge issue, will continue even as the acuteness of that problem recedes or as the responsibility for it continues to be fought in the courts. In fact, the kinds of letter-writing campaigns that were planned and to some extent executed in the beginnings of the anti-bridge movement should by all means continue. But we must recognize that this is only a symptom and that the battle is a much larger one that will need to be fought on multiple fronts and over a long period of time: haphazard road development process, water borne disease, etc. - take your pick - so many VERY important issues to the health of the dham and its people.
Even stopping the bridge will only be the equivalent of stopping the bleeding; it will not heal the wound.
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Jagannath has been running Friends of Vrindavan for the last several years. (See also http://www.fov.org.uk/)
There is still a small Radha-Krishna temple in the building, as you can see here.
The main FOV activities at present include cleaning some parts of the town and helping with specific cleaning projects. I personally find this somewhat improper, as these are jobs that the municipality should be doing and the involvement of NGO's gives the public sector the right to wash its hands of responsibility. FOV has only limited capacity to clean the streets and neighborhoods of the town. Some other NGO's like Food For Life Vrindavan (FFLV) are also doing work in this regard, but the overall effect seem to be minimal.
In fact, it seems to me that the extent of their work has lessened over the past few years. At any rate, no one will say that they have been successful in making Vrindavan a clean place. The reason behind this can be explained as follows:
Funding for street cleaning was given to both FFLV and FoV as a pilot project that would eventually become self sustainable. Therefore, the organizations were encouraged to get residents to pay for cleaning services. Most of these people argue, not unreasonably, that they should not have to pay anything extra since they already pay taxes to the municipality.
FoV was somewhat more successful than FFLV in getting local income, but as the initial project funding winds down, neither of the two NGOs has been able to make the project fully self-sustainable, which means that costs are being cut. This again results in performance suffering and so people stop paying due to reduced services.
Mr. Saigal of FFLV says that the real problem is that the municipality does not have the funding to do most of its work. FFLV even occasionally gives money to the municipality itself so it can cover things like hand pumps and even their own (the municipality's) salaries. Mr. Saigal says that the municipality principal source of income comes from property taxes and that this is only collected from the poor people of the town. Temples and ashrams have clung to ancient tax codes and furiously refuse to allow their tax amounts to be increased.
Mr. Saigal of FFLV says that the real problem is that the municipality does not have the funding to do most of its work. FFLV even occasionally gives money to the municipality itself so it can cover things like hand pumps and even their own (the municipality's) salaries. Mr. Saigal says that the municipality principal source of income comes from property taxes and that this is only collected from the poor people of the town. Temples and ashrams have clung to ancient tax codes and furiously refuse to allow their tax amounts to be increased.
This is quite rightly unsustainable. Ashram owners and goswamis want change in Vrindavan and yet do not want to increase their contributions to the municipality. Here again we have a case of the lack of a civil sense coming to the fore. As long as things are nice within my four walls, let the Red Death rage outside!!
This is not to say that many of FOV's initiatives are not good. They have a paper recycling unit, with which they make colored artisanal paper products of nice quality. They need a market, so anyone who knows where such recycled, handmade paper can be sold is welcome to share the information.
As such, FOV hires quite a few people, I did not get the number. They are also looking for ways to recycle plastics, making baskets and other interesting products with the polyethylene bags that are gathered from the streets. After washing them of course.
Finally, it is worth mentioning their worm composting project, which also brings in some income, as the fertilizer is of high quality. These are all very admirable projects, whose scope needs considerable widening and support.
It may be said that the lack of a central garbage dump (though there is an official one near the Pagal Baba temple) means that there is little or no scavenger industry as in most poor countries in the world. One often hears of the great garbage dumps in Cairo or Manila. But here, the garbage seems to be evenly distributed in every empty plot of land, indiscriminately.
I cannot see how there will be any progress on this front until waste management is conducted effectively by the muncipality itself.
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