Indore: Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday expressed confidence that under the Centre’s ‘Clean Ganga’ campaign, the river will become clean and its flow will be unhindered in the next five years.
“The Clean Ganga campaign is in full swing. Under the programme, the river will be transformed in five years and its stream would be made free and unhindered,” Javadekar said.
Other rivers in India would also be cleaned in a similar way under this campaign at a later stage, he added. “In order to check pollution in the River Ganga, 17 highly-polluting industries were identified and their 3,206 units were directed to install 24X7 pollution control systems by March 31,” he said.
Javadekar claimed after he took charge of the Environment Ministry, its role did not just remain confined to creating hurdles in the way of development, but to ensure environment protection and development together.
“We are taking decisions at a fast pace without making any compromises with environmental clearance rules,” he said. He informed that permissions regarding environment and forests were being given through online process. “Over 900 applications were proceeding in a time-bound manner. The applicant can also check the status of his application online.”
Javadekar said, to give a boost to the afforestation drive, the Environment Ministry would allocate Rs 33,000 crore to the state governments. “The amount would be given to the states soon after getting a nod from the Supreme Court,” he said.