Centre for research on Saraswati soon: Chief Minister

CHANDIGARH: A centre of research on Saraswati river will be set up in Kurukshetra University as the Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board has approved Rs 20 lakh to establish this centre.
After chairing a meeting of the board, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Thursday that extensive research on both scientific and cultural aspect of this river should be conducted at the centre of research. This centre, the government believes, would help in increasing the knowledge of students and also promote research among scholars.
It was also decided in the meeting that sewerage treatment plants (STPs) would be set up at Saraswati Nagar and Bilaspur in Yamunanagar district to check pollution in river Saraswati.
It was informed that there were about 19 villages in Saraswati Nagar and Bilaspur and polluted water of these villages falls in this sacred river. Similarly, STPs would also be set up at Pehowa in Kurukshetra district and Kurukshetra town by public health engineering department to prevent river Saraswati from getting polluted.
The chief minister directed the concerned offices to prepare estimates for the same so that these STPs could be set up at the earliest.TNN He also directed to explore other measures through which the excess water in the villages could be distributed to the agriculture fields instead of running down into the Saraswati river. It was suggested that recycling of waste water should be done at the places where STPs were set up by public health engineering department.
It was informed that Rs 3 crore were approved for the board last year out of which Rs 18 lakh have been spent on various development activities. He was also informed that recently a delegation from Australia visited Haryana and evinced keen interest in implementing a pilot project in treatment of waste water and solar power in the areas adjoining the Saraswati and the entire expenditure would be borne by the Australian government. Various activities were being taken up by the board for the promotion of this river and the important places adjacent to the river. Apart from this, the board has a number of religious and archaeological sites to showcase specially Rakhigari in Hisar.