SC dissatisfied with Centre's plan to clean Ganga, asks it to make it more achievable

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with the Narendra Modi government affidavit on its effort to clean river Ganga. The court asked the government to come with a time bound plan and realistiaclly achievable plan.

The apex court has 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.

The court even offered to help the government. It said, "If you want we will give you all assitance in directing other authories to cooperate and even order closing down polluting industries."

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.

The Centre said it has accorded a status of national priority to the rejuvenation of Ganga and ecological flow of the river will be maintained.

It also stated that restoring ecological sanctity of the river will be the prime focus and one of the major steps was creating awareness about the conservation of river and ensuring peoples' participation in the process.

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.

Reminding the Modi government that cleaning of Ganga was on its poll manifesto, the Supreme Court had asked why urgent steps are not being taken on it and set a two-week timeline for it to come up with a road map for making the 2500 kms long river pollution free.

The government had earlier informed that the NGRBA, the nodal agency involved in the clean Ganga mission, has been transferred from MoEF to the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

(With additional information from PTI)