The Centre has formed a committee comprising the secretaries of three ministries to expedite the implementation of its ambitious Namami Gange programme under which it plans to free the Ganga river of waste by next year.
Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti announced formation of the committee while chairing the first meeting of the Empowered Task Force on Ganga here today, an official statement said.
The secretaries of ministries of Water Resources, Environment and Forest, and Drinking Water and Sanitation will be members of the panel, which will meet at least once every fortnight.
Reviewing the progress of the programme, Bharti expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in obtaining no-objection certificates (NoCs) from states, particularly Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, and said these issues need to be sorted out "at the earliest".
"She urged various states to constitute state- and district-level Ganga committees at the earliest," it said.
She asked officials to complete works on old projects.
Giving an overview of the progress, the minister said that presently 42 sewage infrastructure projects are under execution and envisage to create 327.93 MLD treatment capacity.
Till December 2016, 253.50 MLD sewage treatment capacity has been created. Sewer network of 3,896.55km is to be laid under these projects. Sewer network of 1,060.96km has been laid and the rest is under progress.
Bharti said that online effluent monitoring system (EMS) has been installed in 572 out of 760 grossly polluting industries (GPIs) and data is being captured at dashboard from 266 such industries.
Also, 135 GPIs have been closed for non-compliance with stipulated norms and 17 have been exempted. Thirty-six units have been given deadline till March 31, 2017 for installation of online EMS.
The minister said that eight real-time water quality monitoring stations (RTWQMS) are operational under the National Hydrology Project.
A network of 113 RTWQMS has been planned. In Phase-I, 36 stations are under installation and to be completed by March 2017. CPCB has proposed to install nine RTWQMS on the tributaries of Ganga.
The minster said that, as of now, 2,789 villages have been declared as open-defecation free (ODF) out of 4,291 marked villages along the main stem of the river.
A total of 8,96,415 (54 per cent) individual household
latrines have been completed, she said.
The minister said that 182 ghats and 118 crematoria projects to be built along the river have been sanctioned. Out of these, works on 50 ghats and 15 crematoria are under progress.
"The work in respect of all remaining ghats/crematoria will commence within the next three months. Against the target of 15.27 lakh individual household latrines, approximately 10 lakh individual household latrines are expected to be completed by March 2017," the statement said.
Liquid and solid waste management in 25 selected villages will be commissioned within next three months. Pre-plantation activities will be taken up in all five states through which the Ganga flows, so that plantations against the work plan of 2016-17, as well as 2017-18 are taken up during the next monsoon season, she added.
The meeting was attended by secretary of Water Resources, Drinking and Water Sanitation and senior officials from various central ministries and state governments.
