Modi chairs first meeting of Ganga council
Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and several Union Ministers attend
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the first
meeting of the National Ganga Council in Kanpur on Saturday. The council was
constituted in 2016 to oversee the cleaning of the Ganga and is supposed to
meet at least once a year with the Prime Minister chairing the session.
“Somehow this couldn’t be done so far,” an
official
told The Hindu, “but one of the
points taken up was about having this meeting more regularly.”
The meeting was also attended by Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath; Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra
Singh Rawat; Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Harsh
Vardhan, R.K. Singh, Prahlad Patel, Mansukh Mandavia and Hardeep Singh Puri.
Several officials from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
and West Bengal all Ganga basin States were
also present.
The full quorum of the Council with the
Prime Minister in attendance is largely ceremonial. The work of coordinating,
supervising and deliberating on funding Namami Ganga projects is carried out by
an executive
committee of the National Mission for Clean
Ganga that meets every month. The latest meeting was on December 3.
Mr. Modi also took a boat ride from Atal
Ghat to Sisamau drain outfall point. The Sisamau drain was one of Asia largest
drains that emptied nearly 140 million litres of untreated sewage into the Ganga
and was a symbol of pollution in the river. It no longer empties sewage into the
Ganga but the river continues to be unfit for bathing or use as a drinking
water source, The Hindu reported in July.
On his return, Mr. Modi stumbled and fell on
the steps of the Atal Ghat. The official cited earlier said he was in the
vicinity and the Prime
Minister appeared unhurt. One of the steps
was uneven and probably may have caused Mr. Modi to stumble, the official said.
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