Ganga To Be Among World's Cleanest Rivers In 2 Years, Promises Uma Bharti

New Delhi: Union water minister Uma Bharti has promised that Ganga will be among the world's 10 cleanest rivers by 2018. The Narendra Modi government, she said, has allocated Rs 20,000 crore to meet the target.

"The Previous governments spent the money in an unplanned way. We have a clear, phased approach to clean the Ganga," the minister said. "Today, Ganga is among the 10 dirtiest rivers in the world. By 2018, it will be among the ten cleanest rivers."

The minister was speaking at Ek Nayi Subah -- the government's mega show at Delhi's India Gate to celebrate its second anniversary.

Cabinet ministers are participating in talk shows with Doordarshan presenters to discuss the performances of their ministries.

Cleaning Ganga, the minister said, is a job full of challenges. For decades, industries have used the river to dump waste. "We have started cleaning Yamuna as well. We have asked industries not to dump waste into the Ganga," she added.

Earlier this month, Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar had said stringent action against violators over the last one year has helped bring down the dumping of industrial effluents into the Ganga by nearly 35 per cent.

In January, the Environment Ministry had ordered the closure of 150 industrial units along the river -- including sugar mills and tanneries -- after they failed to install 24X7 effluent monitoring systems.

Vigilance teams from the Central Pollution Control Board had and carried out inspections at 130 industries.