To accelerate the Rs. 20,000-crore Namami Gange (or Clean Ganga) programme, the Centre will formulate the Ganga Act, said Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti. Though still a preliminary idea, such an Act will improve coordination among States and help expedite decisions such as diversion of rivers to maintain ecological flows and improve desilting activities, said a top official who didn’t want to be identified. States have differences over sharing of water and an Act, hopefully, will help. But we first need consensus from all States on the basin, the official added. Expert panel According to a statement from the Ministry on Monday, an expert committee headed by Justice (retd.) Girdhar Malaviya, Member, National Ganga River Basin Authority, will coordinate suggestions for the proposed Act. There will also be a committee on desilting the river and 20 trash skimmers will be added to the five already in operation to clean the river. River front development About 1,242 ghats and drains in 411 villages have been identified for river-front development and the Wild Life Institute of India as well as Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute have been tasked with suggesting conservation measures for dolphins, crocodiles and fish respectively. Trees will be planted on 2,700 hectares along the river Ganga during this financial year and 57 manual and five real-time-monitoring stations have already started functioning to monitor the quality of water. In addition, 113 more real-time pollution-monitoring stations will be set up by March next year, the statement added. The Ganga is India’s largest river basin in India in terms of catchment area and constitutes 26% of the country’s land mass and supports about 43% of its population. The basin is spread over 11 States. About Rs. 6,800 crore has been spent by various governments since 1985 to clean the Ganga with little to practically show as progress. Several Ministries are involved with this programme that proposes to make 1,632 gram panchayats by the Ganga open defecation-free by 2022 and improve ecological flows and restore aquatic life.
2016, The Hindu