Centre admits Ganga pollution is increasing

New Delhi, Jan 19 (UNI) The Central government in its status report filed in the Supreme Court has admitted that the pollution levels of Ganga are constantly increasing due to sharp growth in the population.

The affidavit filed by Sanjiv Swarup, Director, Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on January 17 says that cleaning of a river is a mammoth task and government efforts can attain fruition only with the effective cooperation of all the stakeholders viz., Central&state governments, local bodies, all industries, NGOs, state board&organisations and general public at large.

The work of pollution abatement of Ganga was started in 1985 and hundreds of crores have gone down the drain and the pollution levels of Holy Ganga have gone up instead of improving. The same is the case with Yamuna, another sacred river.

The affidavit further states that it will be unreasonable for a developing country like India to expect to achieve in 10-15 years what it has taken countries with many more resources over 30 years to achieve particularly for much smaller rivers than Ganga.

UNI