NDA focus on Yamuna to accomplish clean Ganga mission before 2019 polls

NEW DELHI: Showing urgency to accomplish its promise to clean the Ganga in view of the 2109 General Election, the NDA government at the Centre has focused on cleaning the river’s second largest tributary — the Yamuna — which discharges filth into it.

File photo for representation.

Ravi S Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 2

Showing urgency to accomplish its promise to clean the Ganga in view of the 2109 General Election, the NDA government at the Centre has focused on cleaning the river’s second largest tributary — the Yamuna — which discharges filth into it.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) — a body of the Water Resources Ministry — has approved 10 big sewerage projects worth Rs 1573 crore, including for Agra which is the main contributor of Yamuna’s pollution, and for Paonta town in Himachal Pradesh.

Paonta Sahib Gurdwara (in Paonta town) is situated on the banks of Yamuna which is the boundary between Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The 1376 km-long Yamuna originates in Yamunotri glacier in Uttarakhand and passes through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh where it merges with the Ganga at Triveni Sangam (at Prayag in Allahabad) — a site for Kumbh Mela.

Bulk of the projects approved is for Agra city for which a comprehensive sewerage solution has been planned.

“These projects are expected to drastically reduce the pollution load from Agra city into Yamuna and consequently help to save the Taj Mahal and improvement of the river water quality, ground water quality and overall aesthetics of the area,” a ministry official said.

Agra is the political and cultural heartbeat of western Uttar Pradesh. Also, it is one of the most polluting centres of Yamuna which carries the city’s waste and drains it in Ganga.

Clean-Ganga Mission is a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the last parliamentary election, he had said that the holy river had beckoned him, implying his contesting from the holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was given the additional charge of Water Resources by replacing Uma Bharti.

Besides, Uttar Pradesh’s other cities, Kasgang and Sultanpur, are other locations where the projects will be implemented.

The projects will be implemented in four cities in the sate Bihar and one under Burdwan municipality.