NEW DELHI: Ganga's cleansing is of utmost importance to the government as the sacred river has been the foundation of India's economic activity, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Shekhawat said on Monday.
The National Clean Ganga Mission has managed to connect the common man with the river, the minister said at the Ganga Utsav being organised here to celebrate rivers.
"We have succeeded in connecting Ganga with the common man and made it a Jan Andolan under the NMCG. There are crores of people who are fulfilling their responsibility in carrying out the process of cleaning Ganga," he said.
"Ganga has been the foundation of India's economic activity and livelihood of 40 per cent of the country's population is dependent upon Ganga which also makes its cleansing of utmost importance for us," he added.
Shekhawat said India is a diverse country and rivers like Ganga bind and unite people so our commitment towards them is necessary.
"Earlier, the work to clean Ganga was being undertaken in silos and efforts were not made at the desired intensity," he said.
Jal Shakti Secretary Pankaj Kumar said that due to NMCG significant improvement on the ground can already be seen.
"We have already started seeing significant improvements on the ground with improvement of water quality whether it is in terms of dissolved oxygen or biological oxygen, or fecal coliform and this improvement can be being observed at many places," he said.
He further said the government is expanding cleansing of rivers and going beyond Ganga.