U'khand govt apprises SC of Ganga situation

The Uttarakhand government has informed the Supreme Court that the water from the Ganga is fit to drink from Gangotri, the river’s origin, up to Laxman Jhula in Rishikesh.

From there downward to Haridwar, the water can be used for bathing, it has said.
In an affidavit, the state government told the apex court that the river’s stream which passes through Haridwar had a slightly elevated biochemical oxygen demand and permissable levels of dissolved oxygen after the Jagjeet Sewage Treatment Plant was set up.

It attributed the higher levels of biochemical oxygen demand to the overloading of the treatment plant. The construction of a new plant under the National Ganga River Basin Authority is underway, the state pointed out.

To ensure that untreated sewage water is not released into the Ganga, the apex court had on April 16 and May 5 directed the Uttarakhand government to file a status report with regard to establishing sewage treatment plants and monitoring water quality.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his resolve to clean the river, that has been long-revered by millions of people and is considered to be the country’s lifeline. Modi had created a separate ministry for the Ganga and created an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore for it.