‘Initiatives to clean Ganga will show results next year’

NEW DELHI: Work is underway to frame a new law for cleansing the Ganga and the various initiatives taken to clean the river will start showing results next year, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Responding to questions, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati said draft of the new law has been submitted to her ministry and discussions on it are underway. She said cleaning of the river was a gigantic task and it was not like rivers Thames or Rhine, where people do not take bath.

In Ganga, about 20 lakh people bathe everyday and 60 crore people every year, the minister said, drawing contrast with the foreign rivers. At the same time, she assured the members of the Upper House that various initiatives taken by the central government for Ganga river cleaning will start showing results in 2018 as promised earlier. “Our Ministry proposes to bring a new Ganga Act. Discussions are underway on bringing the new Ganga Act. The Act has been submitted to the Ministry by a committee headed by Justice Girdhar Malviya and discussions are underway on it. It will be shared with states before,” she said.

“When a road project starts, it takes 2-3 years for getting various clearances and the road is constructed in 1-1.5 years. In 2018, the results for Ganga will start showing. We have made enough preparations in this regard,” she claimed. NEW DELHI: Gangotri glacier retreated by 0.15 sq km between 2007 and 2016, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.

Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan in a written reply said the melting of Gangotri glacier has been studied by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) by taking Survey of India maps of 1962 as the base. He said that the area of Gangotri glacier was estimated as 224.42 sq km from the maps of 1962, while from 1990 onwards satellite data was used to monitor the Himalayan glaciers.