Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: BJP leader and Union Water Resource Minister Uma Bharti hit out at Congress` Jairam Ramesh on Monday and accused him of politicising the clean Ganga project.
She said that Opposition should not play politics through Ganga cleaning project, as per reports.
Ramesh had yesterday accused the NDA government of turning the programme to clean Ganga as a `Hindutva project` by attempting to polarise politics through the initiative on the holy river.
"Don`t look it as a Hindutva project. This is not a Hindutva project. This is a national project. Don`t try to polarise politics through Ganga cleaning," Ramesh told the government, PTI reported.
The former Environment Minister also said that the government`s Ganga Mission programme should be a people`s programme and "we must involve society".
"But don`t make it on sadhus and sant`s programme. Ganga is a national river. Ganga defines Indian culture," he had added.
At the same time he had accused the BJP-led government of not acknowledging the initiatives taken by the UPA including establishment of National Ganga River Basin Authority for cleaning Ganga.
Meanwhile, speaking in Mathura yesterday Bharti had said the River Ganga rejuvenation programme would not be successful without cleaning up of river Yamuna.
Speaking to media persons at Sant Vijay Kaushal Maharaj ashram on the banks of river Yamuna in Vrindavan, she said that even if the programme is called River Ganga rejuvenation project, cleaning up of river Yamuna will also be included in it and added that the country would prosper only when the two rivers were made pollution-free.
With PTI inputs
