Stepping up efforts to cleanse the Ganga, the Centre today said it has proposed to pick up operation and maintenance costs of sewage treatment plants (STP) along the river.
"We have made a fresh proposal to the 13th Finance Commission stating that the costs of operating and maintaining sewage treatment plants along the Ganga river be borne by the Centre," environment minister Jairam Ramesh said.
Replying to supplementaries during question hour in the Lok Sabha, he said a number of STPs built under the Ganga Action Plan-I and II were not operating to their full capacity due to financial constraints of municipal bodies.
If approved, the move would give breathing time to reform the finances of municipal bodies, which ultimately will have to pick up costs for running STPs. Ramesh said over 3,000 million litres of sewage is drained into the river along its 2,500 km stretch across five states.
The government, through Ganga Action Plan I and II had built STPs at several places which are used to treat 1,000 million litres of sewage, he said adding that efforts were being made to ensure that no untreated waste is being let into the Ganga.
Ramesh said conservation work for 37 rivers was also being taken up under the National River Conservation Programme.
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