All rivers are as divine as Ganga, says Uma Bharti

NEW DELHI: All rivers are divine and the government will not neglect any of them in its zeal to rejuvenate Ganga, Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti said in the Lok Sabha today.

"Every river is as divine as Ganga. The government will take care of Ganga, Yamuna and also other rivers," she said while replying to a debate on the demands for grants of her ministry.

Bharti was responding to the members who wanted to know why all attention was being paid to Ganga by the government at a time when several rivers of the country are facing menace of pollution and need cleaning.

She further said Rs 2,037 crore earmarked for cleaning of Ganga and Rs 100 core for development of embankments would be fully utilised within the course of the financial year.

The Lok Sabha later passed the demand for grants of the Water Resources Ministry by voice vote.

Stressing that NDA accords top priority to water management, Bharti said the government would observe the first week of 2015-16 as water conservation week and the fiscal as water conservation year.

Responding to the concerns of the states with regard to reparian disputes, she said "the differences should be termed as issues and not disputes."

Bharti said every effort would be made to resolve the water sharing problems between Andhra Pradesh and newly-formed state Telangana.

The Minister said she would be willing to hold a meeting with the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangaga to resolve the water issues.