A request to friends of my campus

Hi friends,

A very very warm summer!! The mercury has gone up over 44 degree Celsius
in (our beloved) city Kanpur.  Just 9 years back on the same date it was
less than 35 degree Celsius and never crossed 40 degree Celsius for last
so many years. Actually it is highest since recording of temperature has
been done.
So we are using all our cooling equipments to keep the temperature low or
very low so than we can live, and are also using these equipments to cool
our room even when we are not inside our room (possibly, so that our bed
and books can live).

Now here are some facts for you -
1. Daily more than 5 "dharna","Upadrav" or "Gherao" happens in our city,
because people don't get electricity in night (and yes! in day too).
Kanpur city doesn't get power supply for even 12 H/day.
2. Our District hospital have a separate electricity supply feeder like
our institute, but for whatever reason, we get 24X7 supply of electricity,
while people who are sick have to spent sleepless nights. The reason?
(un)fortunately we IITian get priority over them.
3. In our state (many of you don't consider Kanpur as our city, or U.P. as
our state, but by law it is the fact), the JANTA is facing acute shortage
of power. They can blame Central government, State government or even NTPC
for it, but if anyone else has to be blamed then it is we, IITian along
with other persons living in so called VIP areas.
Per capita use of power in IIT is 4 to 5 times higher than an average
"Kanpuria" person.
But if you think 5 fold use of electricity is justifiable for some
reasons, then there is something more which can be added to it, and which
can not be justified by any way:

"Per person use of water in IIT is more than 20times higher than other
people living in same city"
To supply us such a huge amount of water (15MLD - million liters per day),
we have tube wells which sucks water from depth as mush as 350 meters
(Approximately 1300 feet) and do you know the water table recharging
capacity of our institute. It is not very difficult to guess, It is
exactly equal to one default value i.e. a big ABSOLUTE ZERO.
The adjoining areas of our (un)holy institute are facing shortage of
water, because they can't dig up to the depth of 1500 feet, they rely on
their hand-pumps, which have been dried, thanks to us. At a depth of 1300
feet, we get 'pure drinking water' and we are using this priceless
resource to maintain our artificial grassland, which no one uses; or to
flush our toilets. It doesn't sound good, but we, people of IIT Kanpur,
some times back who were considered as most intelligent people of this
county, don't apply any single method to reuse water inside our campus.
And why the term like 'some times back'? Because some years back people
inside campus and outside too used to say that "IIT is pride of Kanpur",
but now a lot of outside campus community (including many of campus
community too) say that "IIT is actually a burden over Kanpur". And
logically they have full right to say this as we are snatching resources
from them which are meant to be used by all. According to a UN report 1
billion of world population don't have access to drinking water, And we
are using/wasting pure drinking water for all our needs and luxuries.

But is all really so black? The answer is NO. Now we did so much WRONG
that we have ample opportunity to correct it. (Its like giving a make-up
examination with a zero mark on previous one). It is the time to stand up
and say that we can be considered as one, for whom country and society
should spend their wealth, and we are not selfish enough to put our hand
over others wealth.

So now we have a chance. Whenever you see a switch which is ON, you have
an opportunity to make an impact, just OFF it and think about some early
teenagers which can now study in evening, because you made their tube
lights lit.  You reuse EK BALTI PANI, and one family of our city will have
drinking water for whole day. You switch off any unnecessary lighting
bulb/CFL at night, some patient in general ward of hospital can have a
good sleep, increasing his/her chance of recovery.
I know all of you will definitely like to hear than someone has a smile on
one's face because of you. Now you have a chance. JUST DO IT.


Thank You!

With a request,
Pankaj.