Cleaning of Ganga, to show impact in six months, says Uma

A meeting of around 700 industrial units and houses would be held in New Delhi on October 8, where they would be asked not to discharge chemicals, particularly plastic, plaster of Paris and nylon, in the rivers.

Bharti, however, said the biggest work in the long-term perspective was setting up of sewerage treatment plants in various cities to prevent untreated sewage from being discharged into the river.

A separate meeting of the government officials from all the states concerned would also be held in October. These would be preliminary meetings to set the conservation and cleaning agenda rolling on the ground. Bharti also said the farmers of UP and Haryana would be encouraged to take up farming practices, which require less water for irrigation in a bid to reduce pressure on the rivers.

Talking about inter-linking of rivers, Bharti said the work in this regard on Ken and Betwa on UP-Madhya Pradesh border has begun and added that there was no proposal for linking River Ganga to any other river; although some of its tributaries may be included in the linking project.

The views of the experts on environment will be taken in this regard, besides consent of the states. Also, the strategic views on rivers that cross international border would also be taken into consideration, she said.