The Hindu : CMs' meet on June 16

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 05, 2003

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National

CMs' meet on June 16

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 4. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has called a meeting of the Chief Ministers on June 16 to review the functioning of the National River Conservation Authority, which is reeling under acute financial crisis.

It will take stock of the progress made by the Authority in achieving the target of making all rivers in the country pollution-free by 2012. The last meeting was held in March 2001, though the review is to be made annually.

The highlight of this year's meeting will be to check pollution levels in rivers and lakes as the Tenth Five Year Plan lays thrust on cleaning the major rivers by 2007 and all rivers in the country by 2012.

However, the target seems difficult to achieve because the Authority is acutely short of funds and its pace of progress has been far from satisfactory. Attempts would be made at the meeting to finds out ways to make the Authority a financially stronger body and help it reach the goal in the stipulated time-frame.

On Tuesday, the Planning Commission also reviewed the progress of the National River Conservation Authority at the Quarterly Plan Review (QPR) meeting of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

As many as 58 towns in 18 States are to be covered under the Plan.

It was pointed out in the meeting that emphasis was now being laid on the cleaning of rivers in the South also because initially the general feeling was that the scheme was North-centric.

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