Union Cabinet approves Namami Gange Program

Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the flagship Namami Gange Program. The program integrates the efforts to clean and protect the River Ganga in a comprehensive manner by involving differed States and grassroots level institutions.
It has a budgetary outlay of 20000 crore rupees for 2015-20. It will be implemented National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) with the help of State Program Management Groups (SPMGs).
In order to improve implementation of the program, a three-tier mechanism has been proposed for project monitoring. It will comprise of

• At national level: High level task force chaired by Cabinet Secretary and assisted by NMCG.
• At national level: State level committee chaired by Chief Secretary and assisted by SPMG.
• At District level: District level committee chaired by the District Magistrate.

Focus area of Program  

• Pollution abatement interventions by interception, diversion and treatment of wastewater flowing through the open drains through bio-remediation.
• Use of innovative technologies for sewage treatment plants (STPs) and effluent treatment plant (ETPs).
• Rehabilitation and augmentation of existing STPs and immediate short term measures for arresting pollution at exit points on river front to prevent inflow of sewage etc.

Funding: Union government will provide 100% funding for various projects under this program. For this Union Government will adopt Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) approach for pollution hotspots.
Enforcement: In an attempt to bolster enforcement of this program and to check pollution and protect the river, Union government will establish a Territorial Army unit named 4-battalion Ganga Eco-Task Force.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2015