Cleaning the Ganga is no joke – 118 towns selected to ensure 500-meters litter free banks

#umabharati #cleanganga #litterfree The length of the River Ganges is 2525-Km and, in order to implement the Ganga clean-up mission, a decision has been taken by the authorities to ensure that 500-meters along the banks of the river in 118 towns be kept litter free. This would mean that a total of 59-Km of the banks out of a total of 2525-Km would be kept litter free.
An added incentive – local unemployed youth would be employed to ensure that the stretch of 500-meers is kept litter free.
This would be great news because it would mean that not only has the work of Ganga clean-up been quantified but, action has been started and, gradually, the whole 2525-Km would get covered under the campaign.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 19 April 2015.

This would be a part of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) which is an autonomous body under the ministry of water resources. It would enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with each of the 118 urban local bodies from the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Water resources minister Uma Bharti has listed out the objectives of the move and has admitted that the task of cleaning the Ganga was an arduous and complex affair but certainly not impossible.
Uma Bharati has also revealed that her ministry had contacted countries like Germany, Australia, China, Nepal and Bangladesh for cooperation and technological help. But, she has also added that cleaning of the Ganga cannot be modeled on rivers of foreign countries because the Ganga has "cultural and religious significance".

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Clean Ganga mission – 700 tanneries of Kanpur pollute the River Ganges

#tanneries #kanpur #cleanganga #pollution The Clean Ganga mission is a mission that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to pursue with vigor and he has named Uma Bharati as the minister who should follow up and ensure implementation. But, the extent of pollution due to the tanneries in Kanpur, situated on the banks of the Ganges, poses a major challenge.
In this context, the warning of the National Green Tribunal has come not a day too soon – it has warned of complete closure of 700 tanneries in Kanpur located on the banks of the Rive Ganges because these are one of the "highest sources of pollution". These pollutants were injurious to human health and bio-diversity apart from ecology of the river.
Moreover, the tribunal has also observed that unless effective steps are taken to curb the pollution level then the tanneries would be closed because the lives of millions who reside in the region would be in anger and that should not happen.
The NGT is serious about the matter and a bench, headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar, has issued directions for inspection of the entire tannery industrial cluster. This should be undertaken by a team consisting of reps of Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).
The bench was quite clear on what was needed - life of millions cannot be put at stake for carrying out a commercial activity of a group of individuals and a proper balance must be maintained between development and environment.