New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-headed review meeting on Yamuna rejuvenation on Thursday discussed measures like public participation and the use of real-time data and space technology to revive the heavily polluted river, said a statement.
The prime minister emphasised that the experience of the Chhath Puja celebration by the people of Delhi should improve, it said.
The meeting held at the PM residence was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and others.
Agency-wise action plan to clean the river was reviewed in the meeting to assess the current status of the Yamuna river and discuss ongoing and plans for its cleaning and rejuvenation, the Delhi government statement said.
Prime Minister Modi said the experience of the people of Delhi while celebrating the festival of Chhath Puja should improve and emphasised the need to create a people-river connection to inculcate respect for the river and make it a part of the lives of people living in the cities settled along the Yamuna, it said.
A ‘Jan Bhagidari Movement’ enlisting volunteers for Yamuna rejuvenation and holding public events around the river were also emphasised.
In addition to the Delhi stretch, special attention may also be paid to the culturally rich area around Braj, making the ‘Braj Yatra’ a part of the river-people movement, the statement said.
The prime minister advised that the best available technology should be harnessed to gather micro-level real-time data to measure the flows in the drains as well as monitor the functioning of the sewage treatment plants.
Further planning and implementation of pollution abatement infrastructure should be based on this data, it said.
The data must also be used for improving governance to ensure that the existing infrastructure is functioning effectively. He also advised that space technology may be used for this purpose, the statement added.
Actions to be taken for rejuvenating the river stretches in Haryana, Delhi as well as the stretch downstream up to Sangam at Prayagraj were deliberated in the meeting.
The meeting discussed short-term activities (of three months), medium-term activities (three months to one-and-a-half years) and long-term activities (one-and-a-half years to three years) related to the cleaning of the Yamuna along with management of drains, sewage, industrial waste and identification of gaps in wastewater treatment.
Monitoring measures, improving the flow in the river Yamuna, flood plain protection, green riverfront development and public outreach were all discussed with specific timelines, it said.
The urgent need to rehabilitate Delhi’s drinking water system to reduce leakages and non-revenue water was emphasised. It was also decided that Delhi would prepare an Urban River Management Plan for holistic water management and integrate it with the master plan of the city.
The current status of the wastewater treatment infrastructure and the governance issues that impact the quality of the river Yamuna were presented to the prime minister, the statement said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
