Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has sought active involvement and cooperation of Lok Sabha members from the constituencies along the river Ganga. In a get together with them held last evening in New Delhi she said all aspects of Ganga including pollution eradication, continuity of Ganga, biodiversity and conservation of vegetations in the vicinity have been taken care of in the Namami Gange Programme. Sushri Uma Bharti said even the world bank has applauded the scheme by saying that for the first time any river conservation scheme has been chalked out so meticulously.Sushri Bharti said she wish to proceed on a Padyatra from Gangortri to Ganga Sagar provided the Prime Minister approves it. She said, “During this journey I want to have an on the spot evaluation of the progress of the Namami Gange pogramme and urge the people to make this programme a success”. She said the public, government and society at large are equal stake holders in the success of the progamme. She said the government will set up STPs on the river bank, construct Ghats there and will arrange for the conservation of the biodiversity of the area for once.
But the continuation and sustaining of this effort then becomes a responsibility of the public and society. The Minister emphasized that Namami Gange programme is like a penance not a benevolence towards Ganga. Instead, this is repentance of the sin that was committed following the industrialization and urbanization in the post independence years which resulted in the polluted Ganga. “We will go for this repentance and handover a clean Ganga to the future generations as an invaluable heritage”, the Minister added. The Union Minister said that based on the Seechewal model initially we will invest eight lakh rupees per village along the course of Ganga. About 400 villages situated on the banks of river Ganga have already started development work on this model. The Minister informed that about 250 Namami Gange projects were launched across the country on the 7th of last month and about 1000 are in the pipeline. Members of Parliament while appreciating the progress of Namami Gange Programme urged the Water Resources Minister to start various projects in their constituencies under the programme. Some members were of the view that before starting Namami Gange Programme in their respective constituencies the member concerned should be consulted in detail. The Union Water Resources Minister welcomed the suggestion and directed that official of her Ministry to keep the concerned member in confidence while finalizing Namami Gange programme in his constituency. Shri Manoj Tiwari, MP suggested that folk singers and musician along the river Ganga should be provided the opportunity to perform at various places along the river. The Minister welcomed the idea and directed her officials to act accordingly.
The Union Water Resources Minister told MPs that she will call their meeting once in every six months to discuss the progress of Namami Gange programme in their constituency. The meeting will also take stock of the implementation of Namami Gange Programme. The meeting was attended by Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Smt. Anupriya Patel, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr Mahender Nath Pandey and several MPs. Earlier Shri Rajat Bhargav, Mission Director National Mission for Clean Ganga gave a detailed power point presentation about the progress of Namami Gange Programme. Dr Amerjeet Singh, OSD in the Ministry of Water Resources and several other senior officials were also present on the occasion.