Water Resources & Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharti on Thursday expressed confidence in the lok Sabha that the Ganga would be cleaned by July 2018 and that the return of aqua life in the river would be the biggest benchmark to prove the clean up success story.
Bharati was responding to a series of supplementary questions during Question Hour. The Minister committed that she would announce in the House in July 2018 that the river has been completely cleaned and rejuvenated.
She said the return of river dolphins, turtles and gold fish in the Ganga aqua life system would be the biggest yardstick to prove that the river has rejuvenated.
Bharti said the cleanliness of a river cannot be established in a lab where quality of packaged drinking water is established. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav suggested that the drainage system of cities should be reworked to ensure that the waste goes to the fields and not rivers. He said it would provide farmers with fertiliser and save rivers from pollution.