Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated six mega projects amounting to Rs 521 crores under the Namami Gange Mission in Uttarakhand. The Prime Minister inaugurated several sewage treatment plants and their upgradations today located in Haridwar, Rishikesh, among other regions. A Ganga Museum, to showcase the river rejuvenation activities and its biodiversity, at Chandi Ghat in Haridwar was also inaugurated by the Prime Minister today. Governor Baby Rani Maurya, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, MoS Ratanlal Kataria, among others also participated in the event. “In the past decades, huge initiatives were taken up to clean river Ganga but those initiatives had neither public participation nor farsightedness. As a result, the water of Ganga was never cleaned,” Modi said. “Ganga brings prosperity to almost half of the country’s population. Therefore, non-stop flow and clean water in the river is very much needed. If the old steps were repeated then the condition would have stayed the same. But we went ahead with ‘nayi soch, naya approach’. We did not restrict it to just cleaning up Ganga, but made it the country’s largest river conservation project,” he added. According to him the four-point steps included firstly creating a network of sewage treatment plants that would stop the flow of dirty water in the river. The second was to make sewage treatment plants taking the needs of the coming 10-15 years into account. “Further, 100 big cities and 5,000 villages located along the Ganga were made open-defecation free and fourthly, the tributaries of Ganga are also being cleaned up with full force,” he said. The Prime Minister said that currently under Namami Gange Mission, projects worth Rs 30,000 crores are either completed or are underway. He said that in the upcoming “Kumbh Mela” at Haridwar people participating would be able to witness a cleaner Ganga with the government’s efforts. The Prime Minister also launched Jal Jeevan Mission’s logo and guidelines earlier today. He also said that the Jal Jeevan Mission should also be taken seriously by the State governments to ensure water reaches every household in the country. Further speaking about the reforms brought by the Centre recently he said, “Several reforms, related to farmers, labourers and health, were brought during the recently concluded Parliament session. These reforms will strengthen labourers, youth, women, farmers of the nation. But the nation can see how some people are opposing it just for the sake of it.” The Prime Minister also pointed out that now farmers in the country are free to sell their produce to anyone and anywhere at their discretion, but the Opposition does not want that to happen. “They do not want farmers to sell their produce in the open markets. They want their vehicles to be seized like it used to happen earlier. By burning their equipment (tractor) they are disrespecting farmers today,” the Prime Minister said. “Today these people are misleading farmers over MSP. There will not only be MSP in the country but also the freedom for farmers to sell their produce anywhere. But some people are unable to tolerate this freedom. Their one more medium to earn black money is finished,” PM Modi added. The Prime Minister also slammed the Opposition over defence acquisition by saying, “For years these people (Opposition) didn’t do anything to empower our security forces. Air Force kept asking for Rafale but they never listened to them. When our govt signed a contract with France Govt for Rafale aircraft they started having a problem.” “When the world was celebrating International Yoga Day, under India’s initiative, they were opposing Yoga in India. When Statue of Unity – commemorating Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel- was being unveiled, they were opposing it. None of their tall leaders has visited Statue of Unity so far,” he added.
