Govt for debate on river pollution

In a major move, the Government has agreed for a discussion on pollution in Ganga and Yamuna in Parliament. As the Opposition was building up pressure, the Government agreed for the debate.A Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla confirmed that there is a consensus among various parties for such a discussion. The Government has agreed that there will be a discussion on this issue in this Budget Session itself. Raising the issue, Darshan Singh Yadav (SP) said it is a matter of serious concern that despite huge expenditure and Supreme Court and High Courts passing severe strictures against the government for its failure to check pollution, the situation was worsening. Significantly, at the recent BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, the principal Opposition party decided to raise the issue. With the Samajwadi Party and the Left parties also joining forces, the Government agreed for debate. The decision was conveyed at the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting recently. There were 81 big factories along the periphery of Yamuna in 2000. The number now has increased to over 500, with factories including leather, discharging chromium, arsenic and cadmium which are resulting in diseases like cancer. The underground water, which is being recharged by Yamuna waters, is also getting polluted. The Yamuna Bachao Yatra has also been launched month to save the Yamuna from pollution. At a parallel level, pollution in River Ganga has also been an issue of debate. Recently, Union Environment Minister Jayanti Natarajan admitted in answer to a question in Rajya Sabha that there is no doubt that the holy river is polluted and the flow of the river also is not to the extent that it ought to be to maintain the purity and the continuous ecological flow of the river. All along the river, the industrial effluent account for about 20 per cent, while 80 per cent is basically the domestic untreated sewage, which flows out from the cities that lie along the river Ganga.