Will fully follow Supreme Court directives on Ganga clean-up: Uma Bharti

NEW DELHI: Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti today said her ministry will follow the directives of Supreme Court in "letter and spirit" as regards the cleaning up of the Ganga.

Bharti, who is in charge of the Ganga Rejuvenation portfolio, reiterated the NDA government's commitment to cleaning the river.

"My ministry will follow the directives of the apex court in letter and spirit. Rejuvenation of the Ganga is one of the most important priorities of the NDA government.

"No effort will be spared in fulfilling this task at the earliest," Bharti said in a statement here as she reacted to the observations made by Supreme Court today on the issue.

Reminding the Narendra Modi government that the cleaning of the Ganga was on its poll manifesto, Supreme Court today sought to know why urgent steps are not being taken in the matter and set a two-week deadline for it to come up with a roadmap for making the 2,500-km-long river pollution free.

A bench headed by Justice TS Thakur said that the cleaning of the Ganga was an important objective which needs to be given the greatest priority.

"Are you saving river Ganga? It was also there in your manifesto. Why don't you act on it?," the bench asked the government.