• Union Cabinet approved the flagship Namami Gange Program
• The program integrates the efforts to clean and protect the River Ganga in a comprehensive manner by involving differed States and grassroots level institutions

Key facts:

• It has a budgetary outlay of 20000 crore rupees for 2015-20
• It will be implemented National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) with the help of State Program Management Groups (SPMGs)

Implementation mechanism:

In order to improve implementation of the program, a three-tier mechanism has been proposed for project monitoring

1. National level: High level task force chaired by Cabinet Secretary and assisted by NMCG
2. State level: State level committee chaired by Chief Secretary and assisted by SPMG
3. District level: District level committee chaired by the District Magistrate

Focus areas:

• Pollution abatement interventions by interception, diversion and treatment of wastewater flowing through the open drains through bio-remediation
• Use of innovative technologies for sewage treatment plants (STPs) and 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 etc.

Funding:

• Union government will provide 100% funding for various projects under this program
• For this Union Government will adopt Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) approach for pollution hotspots

Enforcement:

In an attempt to bolster enforcement of this program and to check pollution and protect the river, Union government will establish a Territorial Army unit named 4-battalion Ganga Eco-Task Force

For latest updates, follow this story: Mission Clean Ganga

Published with inputs from Swapnil