The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to come out with a stage-wise plan to clean the river Ganga for restoring it to its pristine glory. The Apex Court gave three weeks time to the Centre to present the plan before it.

Earlier, after perusing the affidavit filed by Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation action plan, the Court observed that it seems that steps taken so far, will not lead to cleaning of the country's holiest river even after 200 years.

The Bench comprising justices T S Thakur and R Banumathi asked the government to try that at least the next generation is able to see the river in its original form.

It said the bureaucratic approach in the action plan would not help in accomplishing Prime Minister's dream project of cleaning the river Ganga and asked the government to come out with a power point presentation instead of giving a vision plan and artistic view.

The Bench specifically asked the Government to apprise about the steps taken in ecologically sensitive areas from Gangotri to downstream 135 kilometres of the river, as no follow up steps have been taken up on this after the 2003 notification.