View Single Post
  #5  
Old Posted Sep 10, 2009, 4:41 AM
MINUS's Avatar
MINUS MINUS is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,226
Rs 1,700 crore gone down the drain

NEW DELHI: In a frank admission, the Centre on Friday said in the Lok Sabha that Ganga and Yamuna were “no cleaner” now than two decades ago, despite spending over Rs 1,700 crore for checking their pollution. “I admit with full responsibility that Ganga and Yamuna are no cleaner than 20 years ago,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh responded to a calling-attention motion on checking pollution in rivers and lakes in India.

He said a “determined and renewed effort” was required to cleanse these major rivers. To a question by BJP MP Adityanath on the cleanliness of the two major rivers of North India, Mr Ramesh said he could provide figures on their pollution levels but “I myself don’t believe these numbers... For a layman, the answer is a depressing no.”

While over Rs 816 crore was spent on two phases of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), Rs 682 crore was spent on the first phase of the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) in the first phase and another Rs 190 crore on the second phase so far, he said.

Referring to the National Ganga River Basin Authority headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said global tender for project consultants to prepare a basin management plan have attracted 30 bids and the selection would be done in the next two months.

Source :Economic Times
Reply With Quote