Noting that Ganga has become very dirty and everybody is responsible for this, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi monitors it at frequent intervals. File Photo/Agencies Noting that Ganga has become very dirty and everybody is responsible for this, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi monitors it at frequent intervals. File Photo/Agencies

A “zero tolerance” policy would be adopted towards the waste being discharged into Ganga river from tanneries, Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said today even as he asserted that some issues needed to be dealt “strictly”. Noting that the discourse should not be about saving the Ganga but serving it, he stressed the need for creating a “social involvement” in the issue and said the government is holding consultations and working in the right direction.

“If we bring a wrong medicine in the house, we do not consume it by saying since we brought it and we have to consume it. In some matters related to Ganga, there is a need to be strict. There are some issues related to Ganga which are so concerning, tanneries being one of them, in which one has to be maintain zero tolerance. Neither treated nor treated (water). Government is thinking about all these issues and working in the right direction,” Dave said when asked about government’s policy on existing tanneries. Noting that Ganga has become very dirty and everybody is responsible for this, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi monitors it at frequent intervals.

“We should not talk about saving Ganga but we should talk of serving it. Ganga has been there for lakhs of years and will continue to do so. If you use wrong words, your approach will change,” he said. Noting that people, cutting across political lines, want the river to be clean, Dave said there was a need to involve the society in the issue.

“There should be social involvement,” he said, adding that there have been many rounds of consultations with Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti over the issue and the government is working on it. He said politician Madan Mohan Malviya’s agreement with the British, about the uninterrupted flow of Ganga in Haridwar, are relevant even today and the ministry wants to implement it.

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