As minister, I was against power projects on Ganga, its main tributaries: Uma Bharti

BJP leader Uma Bharti Sunday said the Uttarakhand flood tragedy triggered by a glacier burst is a matter of concern as well as a warning, and added that as a minister she had spoken against having any power project on the Ganga and its major tributaries.

Bharti was the minister of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation during the first term of the Modi government. In a series of tweets in Hindi, she said the glacier breaking off had damaged a power project, triggering the massive crisis.

This tragedy that has happened in Rishi Ganga in the Himalayas is a matter of concerns as well as a warning, she said. ''When I was a minister, my ministry in its affidavit about the dams in Uttarakhand in the Himalayas had requested that it is a very sensitive region, and, therefore, power projects should not be built on the Ganges and its main tributaries,'' she said. She said the electricity shortfall caused by that decision could have been met by the national greed.

Bharti said she was in Uttarkashi on Saturday and is now in Haridwar. A part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off at Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Sunday, leading to a massive flood in the Dhauli Ganga river and causing large-scale devastation in the upper reaches of the ecologically fragile Himalayas. Over 150 labourers working at a power project in Tapovan-Reni are feared dead, an Indo Tibetan Border Police spokesperson said while quoting the project-in charge. Three bodies were recovered.

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