River cleaning unit to come under Uma Bharti ministry

This is the first administrative decision by NDA govt after it projected the cleaning of the Ganges as a priority

The division overseeing the cleaning of rivers under the ministry of environment and forests will soon be shifted to the river development and Ganga rejuvenation department, water resources ministry, headed by Uma Bharti.

This is the first administrative decision by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government after it projected the cleaning of the Ganges as a priority.

Sources said the move had been initiated with the approval of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and would give Uma Bharti's ministry powers to oversee not only water quantity-related issues but also "quality" ones.

The other key department of the environment ministry, the Central Pollution Control Board, will continue in its current form under the green ministry.

While concerned NDA ministers have deliberated together and separately about cleaning the Ganga, the discussions have tended to be cosmetic. The moving of the river cleaning department is expected to provide more technical heft to Bharti's ministry to deal with the issue of sewage treatment to cities in the Gangetic basin.

Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari, who heads the inter-ministerial group on the ambitious Ganga plan (Nirmal Ganga, Aviral Ganga), had revealed during Ganga Manthan (a national dialogue on the river Ganga) that he had approached the prime minister to bring all authorities under a single umbrella.

"We told them that the various authorities that work on the Ganga should come under Uma Bharti so that development work is initiated soon. The prime minister was very positive about this," Gadkari had said.

Bharti had pointed out that during the previous United Progressive Alliance regime, there was a lack of co-ordination among various ministries involved in the programme of river cleaning. "This led to a delay in work. But that will not happen under our rule where there is a lot of co-operation, unity and co-ordination," said Bharti.

The National River Conservation Plan (NRCP), which is to be moved out of the environment ministry, came into existence in 1985 as a Centre-funded programme. However, since 2001, the cost of projects under the programme is being shared on a 70:30 basis with the states.

The Ganga Action Plan was expanded to cover other rivers under NRCP in 1995. According to official estimates, Rs 5,335 crore had been sanctioned till March 2014 for NRCP. A total of Rs 7,860 crore is the sanctioned cast of the detailed project report of this programme.

In the 2014-15 interim Budget, Rs 486 crore was allocated under NRCP. The NRCP division is also the implementing agency for the National Ganga River Basin Authority, a body constituted in February 2009 and headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for reducing pollution and conserving the Ganges.