THE HINDU File picture of a rag-picker collecting the garbage on the banks of Yamuna in New Delhi. Photo:Sushil Kumar Verma
Flush with funds, the Union and State governments now need to pay more attention to river cleaning projects to make them viable, said Union Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday.
The Minister admitted that while there was no dearth of funds for river cleaning projects, more thinking was needed on how to clean the Ganga and the Yamuna.
Referring to the huge spending made on the Yamuna and the Ganga cleaning projects, the Minister said: “Money is not the constraint. We need to spend more time thinking of solutions.”
The Minister said Ganga cleaning has been structured by the setting up of the National Ganga Basin Authority and a sum of Rs.15,000 crore would be spent over the next 10 years on the river under Mission Clean Ganga.
“The Yamuna is different. It is also difficult because in Delhi the major problem is that of sewage. We have received about Rs.1,200 crore from the Japanese Government so money is not the issue; we need separate drains,” said Mr. Ramesh during an interaction with media persons at the Indian Women’s Press Corps here.
“Unfortunately for a variety of reasons, bodies like the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which is the cutting edge authority, are responsible (for failing to prevent the sewage flow into the river),” the Minister said referring obliquely to the civic body’s inability to curb river pollution. He said apart from resurrecting the dying rivers, there was a need to ensure minimum environment flow of water. “Even President Pratibha Patil in her speech on Monday made a reference to the task of ensuring both nirmal dhara (clean flow) and aviral dhara (continuous flow) in the rivers. With a number of hydel projects planned on rivers like the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, it is becoming difficult to even maintain the minimum flow.”
The Minister pointed out that the pollution in the river was as much a cultural problem. Making a reference to the immersions that are carried out, he said it was regrettable that while people do not observe laws, religious leaders too have not issued a statement prohibiting the practice that is killing the rivers. Recently Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit also admitted that the Yamuna cannot be cleaned before the Commonwealth Games in October this year. In a statement in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Mr. Ramesh also said that apart from the schemes undertaken by the States, the Centre was implementing the Yamuna Action Plan for reducing pollution in the river with assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency in a phased manner. The total expenditure incurred so far under this plan is Rs.908.89 core.
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