Days after being moved out of the Ministry for Ganga Rejuvenation and Water Resources, Union Minister Uma Bharti announced a Ganga Yatra and dismissed reports that ``Prime Minister Modi was unhappy with her performance” and claimed she was “chided only twice for being overweight.”
Ms. Bharti, who quietly took charge on Monday as the new Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation, announced that she would undertake a year-long Ganga yatra from the next month to create awareness about keeping the river clean.
“There is a personal connection between Ganga and me and none come in between,’said Ms Bharti while clarifying that she had announced this yatra a year ago and shouldn’t be seen as an act of defiance.
Talking about her removal from the Ministry for Water Resources, Ms Bharti said, "It was claimed that I failed at my previous ministry. Yesterday, Nitin ji himself said he was associated with me on the issues of Ganga. How come he got the portfolio if we failed? This means we did not fail on the clean Ganga front," she told reporters at her first press conference as the Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister.
Bharti said it was under her that the river interlinking projects came out of official files and the ``Ken-Betwa interlinking project was about to take off while Damanganga-Par- Tapi-Narmada was in the pipeline."
She thanked the Prime Minister for giving her the opportunity to start the yatra, which would begin next month and last a year in phases.
Asked if it would come impact her functioning as the new Minister, she said,”If you look at the schedule, it would be mostly on Saturday and Sunday.” Asserting that almost all villages along the Ganga have already become open defecation free (ODF), the minister said yatra will aim at making them "ODF Plus."
Talking about other key focus areas in her new ministry, she said providing safe drinking water in rural areas is a priorty and a new policy is expected to be announced soon.