Upper Yamuna River Board meet on Mar 20 to discuss water issue

Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti today said a meeting of Upper Yamuna River Board has been called on March 20 to amicably sort out various issues related to the river among UP, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Addressing a group of Yamuna Muktikaran Padyatrees near Palwal at Haryana, she said that her Ministry is committed to the clean and continuous flow of Yamuna river as in the case of Ganga, a statement said.
The report of the IIT consortium is expected soon which is likely to discuss the issue of Yamuna pollution in detail, she added.
The minister said the Ganga Rejuvenation programme could not be successful without cleaning Yamuna and the river needed to be pollution-free.

The Union Government has sanctioned Yamuna Action Plant (YAP)-I and YAP-II schemes for river Yamuna in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and YAP-III in the national capital in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for taking up works for sewerage/interception and diversion of drains, Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), low cost sanitation/community toilet complexes and electric/improved wood crematoria.
An expenditure of Rs 1,514.42 crore has been incurred on YAP-I and YAP-II while YAP-III has been sanctioned with an estimated cost of Rs 1,656 crore.

The Centre also sanctioned two projects for Rs 217.87 crore for pollution abatement of river Yamuna in towns of Sonepat and Panipat in Haryana.

In addition, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission project of the Ministry of Urban Development, DJB is implementing an interceptor sewer project costing Rs 1,357.71 crore to intercept sewage flowing into river Yamuna from three major drains, namely Najafgarh, Supplementary and Shahdara in Delhi, the statement added.
The time frame for completion of YAP-III scheme, being funded by JICA for Delhi, is December 2018 and for interceptor sewer project is June 2015.