Cleaning of River Ganga and Yamuna

Water and Sanitation are the State subjects, and the major sources of pollution in rivers fall under the responsibilities of local and state authorities. The Central Government is at best supplementing the efforts of the State Governments/local bodies by providing Central assistance for pollution abatement. Ministry of Environment and Forests have informed that for river Ganga, National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has been setup in 2009 under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister. The implementing agency for NGRBA is National Mission on Clean Ganga (NMCG). National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) is entrusted with pollution control and conservation/ development of river Yamuna, and other non-Ganga rivers. Further, the concerned State Pollution Control Boards are responsible to control and monitor industrial pollution in order to ensure that untreated industrial effluents are not discharged into the rivers, thereby polluting them. Since inception of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) programme, 76 schemes (70 infrastructure investment, 5 institutional development and 1 implementation support) in 48 towns in Ganga States have been sanctioned at a total cost of Rs. 5004.19 crore. Against this, Rs. 1229.87 crore has been released by the Centre including the matching share of the States so far and a total expenditure of Rs. 838.76 crore has been incurred till March, 2014 for implementation of the projects. A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for 10 years has been signed in 2010 by MoEF& the consortium of 7 IITs for preparation of a comprehensive River Basin Management Plan for Ganga (GRBMP). Besides the IITs, National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee under MoWR, BHU, various universities and research institutes are also involved in GRBMP. Interim report has been submitted, which is circulated to different ministries, departments and other stakeholders for comments. It is expected plan may be drawn by December 2014 with consultation of stake holders. Further, Government is giving special impetus on rejuvenation of River Ganga. Consultation with different stakeholders viz., Ministries such as Ministry of Environment & Forests; Water Resources, Ganga Rejuvenation and River Development; Urban Development; Tourism; Shipping; Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation; Rural Development, etc., as well as academics, technical experts and NGOs associated with cleaning of Ganga, is in progress. Crystallisation of action plan, including framing of its salient features, including time line would be known only after the finalisation of the action plan for cleaning of River Ganga. Central Pollution Control Board is monitoring the levels of Arsenic and Fluoride in ground water. However, no specific information is available in this Ministry regarding high level of arsenic and fluoride in water of rivers Ganga and Yamuna.