NEW DELHI: Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Water Resources claimed that the river Ganga will be about 70 – 80 per cent clean by March next year and will be 100 per cent clean by March 2020. Gadkari claimed this while addressing a gathering in New Delhi after he laid the foundation stone for 11 projects for Yamuna rejuvenation under the Namami Gange programme to conserve the 22 km stretch of the river from Okhla to Wazirabad in the national capital.”The mandate for cleaning the tributaries of the Ganga was taken up with the launch of Namami Gange programme. With these projects, the sewage water falling into river Yamuna will be stopped,” he added.
Mentioning the Lakhwar multi-purpose project in the upper Yamuna basin, Gadkari said that once that project is complete, the Yamuna will flow without any interruption in Delhi. “For the same, trash skimmer is already deployed for Yamuna in Delhi for river surface cleaning,” he said.
Gadkari expressed confidence in achieving the target. Nearly Rs 26,000 crore are being spent on cleaning up the holy river that’s highly polluted now.
Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Environment, Forest& Climate Change and Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi were also present to lay the foundation stones. Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the 1,365-km long Yamuna, covering 22 km in Delhi is responsible for 80 per cent of the pollution in the river. He also urged that a people’s movement is required to rejuvenate Ganga. “Our ministry has collaborated with Clean Ganga Mission on issues like high-resolution survey of Ganga and real water quality monitoring to clean the river,” he said.