Amritanandamayi emphasized the importance of conserving water
Mata Amritanandamayi hands over the cheque for Rs 100 crore for the centre's Namami Ganga project to union finance minister Arun Jaitley at a function at Amritapuri near Kollam on Friday. (Photo: DC)
KOLLAM: Mata Amritanandamayi presented a cheque for Rs. 100 cr to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley for the construction of toilets in the villages adjacent to the river Ganga as a contribution to the Namami Gange project initiated by the Central Government, here at a function in Amritapuri on Friday. She also announced a similar project of Rs 100 cr for building toilets across Kerala to be launched later this month.
Arun Jaitley said this gesture would send a message that everybody who is committed to the cause of a clean Ganga must contribute towards it in some way and make it their own mission.
“Ganga influences the lives of 40 percent Indians who live in areas serviced by it. Despite devotion to the river, we have been careless in preserving and nurturing it. Industrial and household effluents flow untreated into the Ganga, damaging its ecology and purity. The Government is determined to make a major impact on the river in 3 to 4 years through the Namami Gange mission. Every home on the banks must have a toilet so that we can return the river to its pristine purity,” Mr. Jaitley said.
Amritanandamayi emphasized the importance of conserving water. “Though millions depend on the Ganga, the sacred river only has 25 percent original water left and the rest is sewage and factory waste. The unhygienic conditions prevalent in villages on the river banks cause diseases. Being a person born and brought up in a coastal village, I have seen people suffering from the scarcity of clean drinking water,” she said.
PM Narendra Modi had discussed the involvement of the Amritanandamayi Math in the Namami Gange Project as part of Swacch Bharat, an environmental and cleanliness drive. It includes the goal of providing sanitary toilets to more than 60 million homes by 2019. Presently, nearly 600 million people in India have no access to toilets.
Jaitley flays UDF
On the sidelines of the function, Arun Jaitley said the Congress governmnent did not complete several projects it had started and was now opposing the developmental initiatives of the BJP Government. On Bihar assembly seat divisions, he said it would shortly be announced.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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