NEW DELHI: The government's efforts to clean and protect the Ganga on Wednesday got a big financial boost of Rs 20,000 crore which the Centre will spend to rejuvenate the national river in the next five years.The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Na rendra Modi, approved this fund for the government's flagship programme `Namami Gange' which was launched last year. The Rs 20,000 crore is in addition to Rs 2,037 crore which was sanctioned by the Modi government for Ganga rejuvenation in its first budget in July last year.`Namami Gange' is an integrated Ganga conservation mission under the Nationa Ganga River Basin Authority of the ministry of water resources and river development. This programme is aimed at integrating efforts to clean and protect the Ganga in a comprehensive manner by involving states, urban loca bodies and panchayats.Schemes under the mission are conceived in such a way that it will involve people living on the banks of the Ganga in its cleaning exercise and maintenance -which is considered a major shift from past programmes that were based on `top-down' approach involving only central and state government agencies. It is expected that `Namami Gange' will also create jobs for local people.The approval of Rs 20,000 crore for this mission is a five-fold increase over the central expenditure on Ganga cleaning in the past 29 years. The government had earlier incurred an expenditure of approximately Rs 4,000 crore on this task since 1986 when the then PM Rajiv Gandhi had launched the `Ganga Action Plan' with an initial amount of Rs 462 crore.Though other agencies including state governments have also spent money on Ganga cleaning in the past three decades, the central contribution was restricted to Rs 4,000 crore over the years.“Since the overall Ganga cleaning schemes will need more money , the government will raise additional funds by adopting PPP model for implementing various projects including setting up of sewage treatment plants (STPs) in cities and towns along the river Ganga in five states -Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal,“ said an official.The programme will be implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga , and its state counterparts like State Programme Management Groups. The NMCG will also establish field offices where necessary to implement variousschemes.“In order to ramp up progress, the Centre will now take over 100% funding of various activities or projects under this programme. Taking a leaf from the unsatisfactory results of the earlier Ganga Action Plans, the Centre also plans to provide for operation and maintenance of the assets for a minimum 10-year period, and adopt a PPP\SPV approach for pollution hotspots,“ said an official note on the Cabinet decision.“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 a legislation that aims to check pollution and protect the river,“ it added.