New Delhi: The Supreme Court today expressed satisfaction over Centre's blueprint to clean river Ganga but sought response on how it plans to implement the ambitious policy.
The bench said outlining short, medium and long term measures by the Centre was fine but wondered how the court would come to know that these are being implemented.
“We want to be frank with you and don't misunderstand us. How would we be able to verify the implementation of the project. We would like to satisfy ourself on what you are doing,” a bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said.
It also asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar on how the project would be implemented in case the state governments don't co-operate as the states, through which Ganga passes, are ruled by rival parties.
The hearing remained inconclusive and it would be heard on the next date.
After being rapped by the Supreme Court for its approach to clean Ganga, the Narendra Modi government placed before it a blueprint of short, medium and long term measures involving thousands of crore of investment to restore the glory of the holy river.
The NDA government submitted that it has identified 118 towns situated on bank of Ganga as a first target to achieve total sanitation including water waste treatment and solid waste management.
“It is respectfully submitted that in order to ensure rejuvenation of the Ganga, the action plan envisages phase wise timeline in terms of short term- a period of three years, medium term - a period of next five years and long term- a period of next ten years and more,” the affidavit, filed in the Supreme Court, said.
It said timeline for completion of ongoing projects has been prepared after consulting five Ganga basin states which are primarily responsible for implementation of projects for rejuvenation of the 2,500 km long Ganga.
“In the first stage, 118 towns have been tentatively identified for necessary interventions to achieve total sanitation targets including water waste treatment and solid waste management,” it said, adding, “so far seven river front locations have been identified by Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation for development of Ghats at Kedarnath, Haridwar, Varanasi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Patna and Delhi”.
