‘Ganga project will create job opportunities’
DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand will be developed into a hub of medicinal plants so that it generates local employment as well as do its part in rejuvenating the Ganga under a centrally-sponsored project, Union minister Uma Bharti said on Thursday.
Under the ‘Namani Gange’ project, the local people will be encouraged to plant medicinal herbs and set up units for processing them, she said. Herbal plants will be grown in the Ganga’s area and all its tributaries in the hilly state.
“The move will not only help rejuvenate the Ganga and its tributaries but will also help create self-employment opportunities for the local youth,” Uma said while inaugurating the twoday national level stakeholders’ meeting here.
At the event, the water resources minister spoke extensively on the construction of mega dams across the Ganga and its tributaries. “Dams should be so designed that the uninterrupted flow of the holy river (Ganga) or its tributaries is not checked… If the flow of rivers and streams is interrupted, they will dry up sooner or later,” she said, adding that development will be possible only when Nature is left undisturbed.
“Development activities should, therefore, be carried out in such a way that environment is not harmed,” she asserted.
Giving details of the ‘Clean Ganga Project’, she pointed out that dredging of the Ganga and its tributaries will be carried out in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Uma, however, clarified that the forest laws will not be allowed to come in the way of development in the state. In this connection, she referred to the UPA government’s decision to notify the vast swathes of ecologically fragile area between Gangotri and Uttarkashi as ecosensitive zone.
“The decision, per se, was not faulty…But there was a complete mismatch between the decision taken by the (UPA) government and the aspirations of the people for whom it was meant,” Bharti said.
Massive planting of saplings will also be carried out in the Ganga’s catchment area under the ‘Namami Gange’ project, in all the five states through which it passes. “The project will be implemented by eco-task force, a wing of the territorial army, from Gangotri to Gangasagar,” Bharti said.
The eco-task force will work in close co-ordination with district magistrates. A similar co-ordination will also involve the chief secretaries of all the five states and the Union cabinet secretary, she added.