NEW DELHI: When Delhi government officials announced the five day Save Yamuna campaign this week, they hastily added that it was merely a ‘symbolic gesture’ as a run up to World Environment Day on June 5.

Ten years and Rs 700 crores later, the ambitious Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) project in coordination with the government of India and the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) seems as tiny a gesture.

Ever since the project was taken up in 1993 there has been little that has gone right. Officials say the project was seen with a short-sighted perspective and that the agencies in the project were unaware of ground reality. ‘‘A foreign agency like JBIC found vast discrepancies in the project reports submitted to them and actual field reports,’’ an environment ministry official said. The official added that work was being done on ‘war footing’ and not much care was given to impact assessment.

The lack of research was compounded by the fact that though Delhi is now commonly accepted as the worst offender, no steps were taken to tackle the main culprit — trunk sewage lines.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) slum and JJ department has built 10 mini STPs but their effectiveness is still under ‘‘evaluation’’. ‘‘It is a new system that needs to be stabilised,’’ municipal commissioner Rakesh Mehta said.

Experts though are less indulgent. ‘‘We are carrying out a study on STPs’ efficacy. But their technology needs to be upgraded,’’ Kapil Narula, expert on river pollution at Tata Energy Research Institute said.

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Entire Karnataka was facing water shortage and the state Government would spend any amount to meet the situation, State Home Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters here, Kharge said Chief Minister SM Krishna had made it clear that funds would not be a constraint to tackle the water shortage.

He said another Rs 32 crore would be released for providing drinking water, apart from Rs 21.88 crore already released.

Asked if the Government would transport water through rail wagons, he said it would be considered, if necessary.

Kharge said Government was planning to buy fodder from Punjab and Haryana to meet the requirements of cattle in the wake of prevailing drought situation.

He said the state officials would soon hold discussions with their counterparts at the Centre to seek additional food grains for drought relief measure.

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