The great Ganga clean-up disaster: How PM-headed conservation group failed to meet for 10 YEARS and spent just Rs 967 crore of Rs 20,000 crore set aside to save river


Money for nothing, filth for free. That, in a nutshell, is the state of Ganges, India's northern lifeline that passes through five states.

The last three decades have seen an allocation of over Rs 20,000 crore through the two phases of Ganga Action Plan (GAP I & II) to clean up the river. Yet, a clean Ganga remains elusive, as pollutants of all varieties keep choking the holy river.

Behind the statistics of money allocated for cleaning up the Ganga, what remains hidden is the bleak reality of the paltry amounts actually spent and the little work that has been done.



Despite the drains discharging tonnes of effluent into the Ganga, devotees still swear by the water's purity

For about 30 years - GAP was conceived in 1985 - hardly Rs 967.30 crore has been spent in the two phases.



According to informed sources in the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), "It's a misconception that thousands of crores have been spent to clean the river. In fact, only Rs 967.30 crore was spent in the two GAPs over the last 30 years, which means a paltry Rs 30 crore per year." Even the target to create infrastructure has not been met with. "

It is just about 30 per cent of the target that has been put in place.



"Against the target of a total sewage treatment capacity of nearly 3,000 million litres a day (MLD), we have been able to achieve only 1098.31 MLD so far," the source said.



Mail Today accessed the official records which offer the real figures on how much has been spent to clean up the river.



According to these records, in the first phase of GAP, "nearly Rs 461 crore was spent on 260 schemes that were completed to treat about 869 mld of sewage entering the river at different points in five states. In GAP-II, 264 schemes were completed at a cost of Rs 505 crore and sewage treatment capacity of 229 mld has been created, which is just about 1/3rd of the target of 3,000 MLD."



Devotees hold a protest, "Jal Satyagraha," demanding a clean river Ganges

Apathy



No particular government or political party can be blamed, however, for the lackadaisical approach, say top government officials.

"The sluggishness in the efforts to clean up the river cuts across political spectrum which gets compounded by the bureaucratic red tape, involving five member states," says the source.

It seems the apathy and ignorance about the river cleaning starts from the top, including prime ministers. Government sources confirmed to Mail Today that not a single meeting of the prime minister-headed National River Conservation Authority (NRCA) has been held in the last 10 years.

The NRCA was constituted in 1995 and its last meeting was held under former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003.



"The United Progressive Alliance under former PM Manmohan Singh is to blame. It is mandated that NRCA would meet at least once a year… it only resulted in a complete collapse of the vision and policy from the top itself," said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.



Not only has NRCA failed to meet, but even the steering committee of NRCA hasn't got together since 2007.

Headed by the MoEF secretary, the steering committee is mandated to monitor the allocation of funds and progress of sanctioned schemes.



The steering committee is supposed to meet every quarter, with five river basin member states - Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.



Moreover, the National Ganga River Basin Authority constituted in 2009, and comprising of the prime minister as chairman and five member states, met three times but no concrete decision was taken, says a top government source.



While the new government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear that Ganga clean-up will be one of the top priorities, many within the ministry seem to be a bit sceptical.

One such informed source in the ministry said: "Perhaps it has not struck many in the ministry under new minister Uma Bharti that Ganga actually flows through five states where the Bharatiya Janata Party or the National Democratic Alliance is not in power. BJP or any NDA partners are not in power or supporting the state governments in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Bihar could have been an exception a year back, but not now. So, there is little hope that the new frenzy over cleaning the Ganga would actually see some real action."

Manikarnika is among the many cremation ghats on the banks of river Ganga in Varanasi

Garbage dumped near the banks of river Ganga in Allahabad

MoEF rejig may hit Uma's clean-up plan

By Maneesh Pandey in New Delhi

There are more woes to the Ganga cleaning mess than just the money involved.

If government insiders are to be believed, bureaucratic red-tape has triggered an administrative crisis in the ongoing Ganga cleaning agenda set up by Uma Bharti, Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.



It is learnt from reliable sources that a select group of around eight officials, mostly specialists and technocrats, dealing with Ganga Action Plans till now are "being shunted out of the environment ministry and will be asked to merge with scientists in the Ministry of Water Resources."



Devotees take a holy dip on Ganga Dussehra in Har ki Paudi, Hardwar

Sources said Uma Bharti's Ganga-cleaning agenda is facing an administrative crisis

The move has not only left the specialist officials miffed, but many have started thinking about a different career outside the ministry.



"For all administrative reasons, the National River Conservation Directorate should remain with Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The work done at MoEF under Ganga Action Plans (GAP) is purely conservation unlike water resources, which is more to deal with building dams and groundwater recharge and monitoring of water sources," a senior ministry official said.

Technical and Scientific Officers in National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD), which is a autonomous wing of MoEF, is responsible for the river conservation (pollution abatement activities) for important rivers and lakes in the country through its national river conservation programme and national lake conservation programme.



Requesting anonymity, an official said: "Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) has a different mandate altogether - construction of barrages, irrigation projects, hydroelectric projects which goes against mandate of cleaning of rivers. It will be a conflict of interest to transfer NRCD to MoWR."



"Firstly, the administrative gap in these two service cadres is a big roadblock.



"Secondly, service rules of the officers are different in these two ministries as the MoEF is a scientific ministry and their officers are governed by flexible complimentary scheme.

"Thirdly, the MoEF is the nodal ministry for the Water Act, 1974; Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and other environmental laws responsible for regulating polluters like municipalities, utilities and industries which pollute the rivers and other water bodies," the official added.

The NRCD officials are worried that the mandate to regulate GAP remains with the MoEF, hence "why moving to a ministry playing the secondary role."