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New Delhi, Dec 20: Union Minister Satyapal Singh has appealed priests and Hindu spiritual leaders to create awareness among the people about the ever increasing pollution in Ganga river. Satyapal Singh said it was high time that people start thinking about preserving the nature and do their bit for it.
Singh, who served as Mumbai Police Commissioner before joining politics in 2014, said that instead of the traditional ‘asthi visarjan‘ in Ganga, people should bury the ashes in ground and plant sapling on it.
“People have beliefs, but it is the demand of today’s time to revisit them. We must not do anything that affects the purity of Ganga,” he said. (Also Read: NGT Bans Plastic Items Along Ganga in Haridwar Till Uttarkashi)
“As per present situation, I appeal to everyone, ashes must be buried in ground and saplings should be planted on it, so even the coming generations can remember (the deceased). I urge all priests, associated with rituals, to create awareness among people over it,” the Minister of State for Human Resource Development said.
Satyapal Singh’s remark has come a day after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) flagged off ‘deficiencies’ in financial management, planning and implementation of the central governments flagship Namami Gange Programme.
The Clean Ganga Fund having a corpus of Rs 198.14 crore till March 31, 2017 could not be utilised by the NMCG and the entire amount was lying in banks due to “non-finalisation” of action plan, report tabled in Parliament stated. (Also Read: Rs 50,000 Penalty on People Dumping Waste in River Ganga, Directs NGT)
“The NMCG could not finalise the long-term action plans even after more than six-and-a-half years of the signing of an agreement with the consortium of Indian Institutes of Technology,” it said.
“As a result, the NMCG does not have a river basin management plan even after a lapse of more than eight years of the National Ganga River Basin Authority notification,” the report added.
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