Uttar Pradesh government to start desilting of major rivers soon

LUCKNOW: In a counter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clean Ganga campaign, the Uttar Pradesh government will start desilting operations of major rivers in the state within a week.

"An action plan to clear the slit deposited in eight to ten important rivers in the state will be prepared and implemented within a week," Water Resources Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav told PTI in an interview.

Due to heavy silting, many gates of the barrages have closed and besides posing irrigation related problems for the farmers, the rivers have also become shallow, Yadav, who also holds the Irrigation portfolio, said

An action plan would be prepared to clear the silt with latest technology within a week and assistance of private companies would be taken, he added.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clean Ganga campaign, he said if the Centre was so concerned about cleaning of the river, then why was it not concentrating on the desilting work.

"The Centre had been expressing concern over floods, but many rivers have converted into islands and have changed their course, and no concrete action plan has been prepared for their cleaning," he said.

If the Centre had taken initiative for desilting of rivers by taking states into confidence, Uttar Pradesh would have been ready to cooperate, he said.

The minister said that for the desilting work, the irrigation department will not take funds from the state government.

"The extracted silt would be sold on royalty basis through which the state government would earn crore of rupees and the royalty would be divided equally between the government and the irrigation department.

A project would be launched for cleaning of Gomti river under which beautification of the riverside would also be done, he said, adding, no additional assistance would be taken from the state government in this connection.