Panel on Yamuna 'E-flow': Centre calls for consensus among members

New Delhi: Differences of opinion among the members of a panel set up to decide on the 'Environmental Flow' in Yamuna river has forced the Ministry of Water Resources to ask them to arrive at a consensus so that their report can be submitted to another body set up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The three-member committee, which includes the Additional Secretaries of the Water Resources and Environment ministries, was set up last year by the government to recommend as to what should be the environmental flow in Ganga basin, including in Yamuna.

Meanwhile, NGT in January this year constituted a panel of experts drawn from various departments to examine strategies for making Yamuna pollution-free.

During the Upper Yamuna River Board meeting in Delhi last month, representatives from Yamuna-flowing states had insisted that the Ministry of Water Resources must send the recommendations of the three-member committee on environmental flow to the NGT panel.

The states in question were of the view that this would ensure there were no legal issues arising over environmental flow in the Yamuna.

However, the members of the government committee came up with different opinions, thus delaying the submission of the report of the NGT panel.

When contacted, Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati said that the committee members have been instructed to come to a consensus on the issue such as quality, quantity and standard of water to be maintained for environmental flow.

"We have asked them to come to a consensus at the earliest so that the report can be sent to the authorities concerned as early as possible," she told PTI here.