New Delhi: The Supreme Court had expressed the dissatisfaction with the Central government’s affidavit on its effort to clean Ganga River on Wednesday.
Supreme Court said, “After seeing your action plan, it seems Ganga will not be cleaned even after 200 years. You should take steps so that Ganga gets its pristine glory and future generations can see it. We don’t know whether we will see it or not.”
Court said that the government affidavit was too comprehensive and bureaucratic. The court has asked the government to come with a stage wise plan to clean the holy river.
It said, “If you want we will give you all assitance in directing other authories to cooperate and even order closing down polluting industries.”
Court said, “We don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of committees. But we want to know how a common man would expect the cleaning Ganga process to emerge. It is better if you can show us a PowerPoint presentation. Also fix milestones so that we can assess the progress.”
The government had on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was committed to clean Ganga, which was its pre-poll promise, and steps would be taken to prevent any pollution going into the holy river. In a affidavit filed in the apex court, the Centre said a consortium of IIT professionals have been entrusted with the task of finalising holistic Ganga River Basin Management and it would submit the report by the end of December this year.
Representing the government, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar commented that the Ganga at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh is most polluted. “When I visited Allahabad I was asked to take a dip, but I refused because of the pollution,” he shared.
The affidavit also stated that the government has been actively considering the appropriate modification and restructuring of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) to make it more effective.
Bureau Report
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