'Namami Gange' improved water quality of Ganga: Home Minister Amit Shah

central government's 'Namami Gange' mission has improved water quality of Ganga river, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Friday. Shah said project to clean Ganga, one of important rivers of country, has been a success and government will launch similar initiatives to clean or rivers in country in coordination with respective state governments.

Shah was speaking at a ceremony to receive participants of 'Ganga Aamantran Abhiyan', a month-long exploratory open-water rafting and kayaking expedition, covering 2,510 kilometers from Devprayag in Uttarakhand to Ganga Sagar in West Bengal.

event was held from October 10 to vember 12 last year and personnel of three armed forces -- army, air force and navy participated in rafting and boating awareness drive that aimed to spread awareness about importance and history of river among people.

We probably had forgotten to preserve and protect Ganga, that is like our mor, over years. But, Namami Gange mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 has brought about a lot of change in quality of Ganga water, Shah said. People who visited 'kumbh mela', held in Prayagraj last year, bear testimony to this fact, he said.

Shah said aim of various Ganga missions is to ensure that people are made aware about ecological, cultural and historical importance of river. We should educate and make aware children in group of 15 years about Ganga and its importance and we will see that se children, over next 60-70 years, will mselves be capable to protect river, he said.

We need to ensure that strong steps are taken in this direction and we do t have to hang our heads in shame owing to fact that Ganga is polluted, Shah said. He said his government has earmarked funds worth Rs 28,000 crore for clean Ganga mission and out of 310 schemes envisd under this, 116 have been completed.

Speaking at event, Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Shekhawat said Ganga today is one amongst ten most cleanest rivers of world and efforts put by Modi government over last five years has bore good results. We are working on a mission-mode for last five years on this subject under leadership of Modi, Shekhawat said.