The Hindu : Religious personalities should help conserve rivers, says PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003

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Religious personalities should help conserve rivers, says PM

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 16. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has called upon religious personalities and institutions to involve themselves in river cleaning programmes as they could play a positive role in communicating the need for river conservation and mobilising people.

Inaugurating the eleventh meeting of the National River Conservation Authority here today, Mr. Vajpayee said the river cleaning programme was of such a magnitude that the Government alone could not be successful without the involvement of non-government organisations and members of civil society. Social and cultural organisations could also play an effective role.

Expressing concern over the unsatisfactory maintenance of the assets created under the Ganga and Yamuna Action Plans, Mr. Vajpayee said it required immediate attention. "The time has come for the State Governments to evolve new strategies for making the programmes more sustainable by way of capacity building of the local bodies and enhancement of their revenue."

Mr. Vajpayee said that past experiences had shown that the success of ambitious programmes depended on an integrated approach covering all aspects of river pollution as well as urban sanitation and waste management, while calling for a coordinated effort by the Ministries concerned.

The Union Minister for Environment and Forests, T.R. Baalu, called upon the State Governments to give higher priority for river and lake cleaning programmes. The States would have to fund various components of river cleaning programmes such as internal sewerage, and solid wastes. Mr. Baalu said a massive programme of environmental education and awareness also needed to be launched through the National Green Corps and other reputed NGOs to make the programme sustainable and people-friendly. Unless the plan outlay was increased and funds mobilised from other sources, it would be difficult to meet the expectations of the people.

The meeting was attended, among others, by the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, the Deputy Chairperson of Planning Commission, K.C. Pant; the Minister for Urban Affairs and Employment, Ananth Kumar, and the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Haryana and Jharkhand.

The National River Conservation Plan covers 157 towns and 31 stretches of polluted rivers in 18 States. The approved cost of the project is Rs. 4,064 crores, of which the Centre's share is Rs 3,464 crores. Of the 762 schemes approved under the plan, 388 have been completed.

The meeting passed a resolution seeking enhancement of outlay for the Tenth Plan in view of the demands from States.

The Planning Commission has already consented to revise the Tenth Plan outlay from Rs. 1,417 crores to Rs. 1,825 crores at the mid-term review but more funds are needed now, the resolution said.

The resolution also called for a holistic approach for conservation of lakes with focus on abatement of pollution, check on soil erosion, regeneration and development of catchment areas and frontline development.

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