Even after ten months of being in power, prime minister Narendra Modi's pet project Namami Gange is yet to actually take off, Union minister of state for water resources, river development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sanwar Lal Jat told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. According to the minister of state, the Namami Gange project is still at the approval stage and as a result, the submission of proposals by state governments and the release of funds under Centre sponsored schemes has been delayed too.
Even after ten months of being in power, prime minister Narendra Modi's pet project Namami Gange is yet to actually take off, Union minister of state for water resources, river development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sanwar Lal Jat told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. According to the minister of state, the Namami Gange project is still at the approval stage and as a result, the submission of proposals by state governments and the release of funds under Centre sponsored schemes has been delayed too.
The Namami Gange project features high on PM Modi's agenda ever since he assumed office last year. The project is ambitious in nature and scale and envisages the restoration of the holy river by primarily curbing free flow of sewage and effluents into the water body and subsequently restore it to a clean condition. The budgetary allocation for the plan from the ministry of water resources has been reduced by Rs 1,700 crores. However, in total the Union budget for 2015-16 has accorded a higher allocation for the Clean Ganga project.
The minister of state in his written reply also added that Rs 1,300 crore of assistance was approved to the states but current funds cannot be released due to paucity. Further, state proposals worth Rs 2,137 crores have not been processed owing to the crunch. To address this issue, the ministry of water resources has requested the finance ministry for an additional Rs 3,437 crores of supplementary funds. The National Ganga Plan has been accorded Rs 2,100 crores in this year's budget, a significant hike of Rs 600 crore from the 2014-15 budget while the ministry has been allocated Rs 4232.43 crore, as against a planned allocation of Rs 13,237 crores during 2014-15.
The water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation ministry in the past week submitted a report prepared by a consortium of seven IITs to the Supreme Court and will begin implementation of the Ganga River Basin Management plan outlined in the report.
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