Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has asked her Ministry officials to work in mission mode for successful completion of various schemes. Chairing a high level meeting held in New Delhi to review the progress of various schemes and programme of her Ministry, she exhorted senior officials of her Ministry to fulfil the task assigned to them in the given time frame. Referring to the various important schemes of her Ministry such as Namami Gange, programme Inter-linking of rivers, Integrated Water Resources Management Study of ten prioritized river basins, Jal Kranti Abhiyan and Ground Water Identification of Ground Structure and aquifer mapping, Sushri Bharti said that some of these progammes are flagship programmes of Modi Government. She stressed the need for achieving 100% e-governance in her Ministry and said that it should be achieved by the next meeting.
Referring to the need for determining e-flow of all important rivers of the country, the Minister underlined the need for keeping the e-flow factor in mind while approving the designs of new dams. Sushri Bharti said that she is aware of the fact that no country in the world has been able to evolve a proper formula to determine the e-flow. She said Central Water Commission (CWC) should come forward with some guidelines for e-flow which may also be a guiding principle for other countries. The Minister also referred to the urgent need of updating the details of various water bodies in the country. She said CWC should collect these details from States on priority basis so that Kedarnath type tragedies could be avoided in future. The Minister also referred to the depletion of ground water level in and around Puri in Odisha due to illegal activities of building mafia and directed Central Ground Water Board to submit a report on the water level of Puri. Sushri Bharti also referred to some reservations expressed by a section of people in Odisha regarding Mahanadi- Godavari river link project and said that she was able to dispel this fear without much efforts. She also praised the role of media in this.
Senior officials from various organisations, wings and divisions of the Ministry gave power point presentations about the achievements of their respective departments.