'Verifiable progress' sought for Ganga cleansing

Supreme Court on Wednesday said Ganga cleansing programmes have been going on for over three decades with almost no impact on the ground and wondered whether the government wanted to do something during this tenure or would it spill over to the next term.

The apex court sought fresh response of the government about the steps undertaken to implement the stage-wise projects for cleaning the Ganga in the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal in six weeks.

"Now the point is, it is going on for last 30 years. You (Centre) tell us as to what is the verifiable progress in this regard," a bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said.