As part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) today organized Yamunotsav in association with a group of NGOs at ASITA East River Front, ITO Bridge, to celebrate the glory of Yamuna with a “pledge to keep it clean”. DG, NMCG, Shri G. Asok Kumar congratulated all the participating organizations for successfully engaging several stakeholders and all age groups in Yamunotsav and urged the people to dedicatedly join hands to clean Yamuna which is the biggest and the most important tributary of River Ganga.
Reiterating the commitment of NMCG to clean Yamuna, Shri Kumar said “While under Namami Gange Programme, the focus was on the main stem of Ganga Basin and the positives results are now showing, the target now is to clean River Yamuna and ensure that 3 big STPs being constructed are completed by December 2022 with the support of stakeholders, preventing all the major drains and dirty water from falling into Yamuna.” He added that hopefully people of Delhi will see a much cleaner Yamuna by next year. NMCG is funding the construction of sewerage infrastructure for River Yamuna to the tune of around Rs. 2300 crore.
Shri Kumar said that we all should be proud of our River Yamuna, its banks, its biodiversity, its flora and fauna and as envisioned by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, cleaning River Ganga and its tributaries, most importantly Yamuna, should become a Jan Andolan.
More than 1000 people gathered at the Yamuna ghat in the morning to celebrate Yamunotsav, which witnessed live paintings, street plays, classical performance, spiritual performance, music and dance events etc. The festivity was in the air at the Yamuna ghat where people from all age groups revered River Yamuna and took part in creating a momentum to clean the river. One of the most inspiring corners at the event was a board with pictures and paintings made by under privileged children. To spread the message of ‘no-plastic’, kullads (earthen glasses) were kept on the water stations to drink water.
NMCG also apprised the people, especially children, to take part in Ganga Quest 2022 organized under Namami Gange Programme for which registrations were started on 22 September 2021 and the quiz will be launched on 7th April 2022. Ganga Quest is an online quiz which is being organized since 2019 and has impacted in connecting lakhs of children to the Namami Gange Programme.
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BY/AS