On June 16, Prime Minister (pm) Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s exhortation to “implement the river conservation programme with a greater sense of urgency and commitment” was an allusive reference to the states’ tardiness and cursoriness in executing sanctioned projects. What he mentioned even more obliquely was that the plan itself needed drastic course correction. Or else, why would rivers become more polluted despite nearly Rs 1670 crore having been spent on cleaning them?

The pm was speaking in New Delhi at the 11th meeting of the National River Conservation Authority (nrca)