Clean Ganga; NaMo Govt gets a whopping Rs 20,000 crore for the project!

Taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s project to clean Ganga to the next level, the Union government today allocated Rs 20,000 crore for the next five years for the project. According to reports, the budget allocation is five times of the budget approved for conservation of the river in the last thirty years.

"The programme has a budget outlay of Rs 20,000 crore for the next five years,” said the Ministry of Water Resources in a statement. It should be noted that the Centre has spent an overall Rs 4,000 crore on clean Ganga project since 1985.

It further added, “Marking a major shift in implementation, the Government is focusing on involving people living on the banks of the river to attain sustainable results. Drawing from the lessons learnt from previous implementation, the program also focuses on involving the States and grassroots level institutions such as Urban Local Bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions in implementation.”

Unhappy with the progress made by previous governments in the initiative, the NaMo government will now take over 100% funding of various activities that are under this program. “The Centre now plans to provide for operation and maintenance of the assets for a minimum of 10 year period, and adopt a PPP/SPV approach for pollution hotspots. In an attempt to bolster enforcement the Centre also plans to establish a 4-battalion Ganga Eco-Task Force, a Territorial Army unit, apart from contemplating on a legislation that aims to check pollution and protect the river,” noted the ministry.

The government will also involve states and institutions such as Urban Local Bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions for the smooth implementation of the project. “Namami Gange will focus on pollution abatement interventions namely Interception, diversion & treatment of wastewater flowing through the open drains through bio-remediation, appropriate in-situ treatment, use of innovative technologies, sewage treatment plants (STPs), effluent treatment plant (ETPs); rehabilitation and augmentation of existing STPs and immediate short term measures for arresting pollution at exit points on river front to prevent inflow of sewage among others,” the ministry stated.