Clean Ganga Mission a major fail: Only 20% of Rs 20,601 crore fund utilised

The Modi government’s ambitious Ganga Rejuvenation Project has made very little progress since it was launched three years ago.

A report in The Hindu on Thursday exposed poor utilisation of the funds allocated to the project. Only about 20 per cent of the Rs 20,601 crore given to 193 projects had been utilised under the scheme until March 2018, The Hindu report said. That is roughly the same proportion of the sanctioned money utilised the same time last year, the report added.

According to ministry officials, these delays are inconsequential as there has been an uptick in the tenders being awarded in the last few months. And, this would lead to the rapid completion of the stalled projects in the year ahead.

Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari had said in October 2017 that there will be a “visible change” in the Ganga water quality by 2019, but it seems like a far-fetched dream at the moment.

Why NMCG Matters

The National Green Tribunal had come down heavily on the government for the poor implementation of the project last year. The government had demanded more time to expedite the process. Even after repeated warnings, the government has failed to implement the programme.

Ganga flows through 11 states in India from Uttarakhand to West Bengal. Its basin covers 26 per cent of India’s land mass.

There is about 12,000 MLD [million litres per day] of sewage emptied into Ganga. Sewage treatment plants can clean up around 4000 MLD but only 1000 MLD of it gets cleaned.

Chemical effluents, sewage, dead bodies, and excreta constitute the major pollution load.

Industrial pollution accounts for about 20 per cent. In addition to this, the toxic and non-biodegradable nature of the pollutants has a disproportionate impact.

According to The Hindu report, the municipal sewage emptied in the Ganga stands at a billion litres per day, which accounts for 80 per cent of the pollution load.