2. Michael Duffy reported on the recent action taken by FOV as shown on national TV to remove the dumped rubble and uncover the pedestals of the recently covered up chattris at Gopinath Bhavan, otherwise they would be lost forever. He explained that to allow these publicly owned chattris to be buried will encourages further damage to the Ghats.
 
Apropos the ghats and Yamuna he went on to inform the meeting regarding the: ‘Study on Institutional Arrangements for Effective Collaboration between Government & NGOs/CBOs & Guidelines for Conducive Community Participation for Yamuna Acton Plan II (YAP II)’.
 
FoV has been invited by Development Alliance (DA) and on behalf of JBIC (Japan Bank for International Cooperation) to host the preliminary ‘Consultative State Level Workshop’on April 2nd.

Officials from JBIC which is funding YAP ll and the consultants (DA) have been impressed with the progress made by VAACH in initiating community participation activities to address the immediate and long term environmental concerns of Vrindavan.

A successful implementation of the PP & A component of YAP ll require such participatory process. The next steps for the above mentioned assignment are to present the draft institutional arrangement and guidelines to the relevant stakeholders in the three YAP ll States.  Given the progress made by VAACH from Nov 2003 to date, it was strongly felt that Vrindavan ought to be chosen as the location for the first consultative workshop for the State of Uttar Pradesh. Representatives from the NRCD (National Rivers Conservation Directorate of the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India), UP Jal Nigam (the Project implementing Agency for YAP l), JBIC, DA, and approximately 30 other NGO’s from UP will be participating in the workshop - PPA (People’s Awareness & Participation).

*This is a wonderful opportunity for Vrindavan community to address and deal with the problems of Yamuna pollution,Ghats and long term water security.

3. Rupa Raghunath Das (FFLV) and Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti (WVA) stressed the importance of helping municipality.

4. Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti supported by Rupa Raghunath Das then explained the necessity of VAACH having an office and a PR person who could liaise between the different organisations and local administration so that VAACH could be publicised in the correct manner. He offered an office at Yamuna Kunj for this facility. The upkeep of such an office was discussed and suitable staff options but no decision was made to begin immediately. The idea was given that different organisations should take over the running of VAACH for year long periods but in the end it was decided to keep the existing arrangements in place until something else was voted upon. As there were few members at this meeting we would appreciate your e-mail response.

5. Those present voted that Prema Rasa being appointed as VAACH Secretary for the remainder of 2004 but as he was leaving the country for 6 months it cannot begin until September. Robyn Beeche asked for Nirguna Das to take over for the next 6 months, she agreed with some reservations.

6. Robyn Beeche asked for existing members to give their ideas for a VAACH Mission Statement and she will be happy to circulate any responses to the above via gambhira@vsnl.com. An up-to-date list of all members is available.

7. An amount of Rs.9,000 has been collected from: C.P. Babuta. Roshan Bhatnagar, Nirguna Dasi, FFLV, FOV, John S. Hawley, MVT, SCPS, WVA.