The Parliamentary Committee on Estimates, chaired by BJP Lok Sabha member Murli Manohar Joshi, has called for setting up an empowered authority headed by the Prime Minister for better coordination and implementation of the schemes for cleaning of Ganga River in a time-bound manner.
According to Joshi, personal monitoring by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) through NamamiGangeprogramme was not enough and the PM should head the proposed body, so that inter-Ministry and inter-State issues are settled without loss of time.
The committee further suggested that the apex body should also be backed by a legislative framework with statutory power to take decisions on all aspects of river rejuvenation projects, whether it is land acquisition for Sewage Treatment Plants (STP), maintaining uninterrupted flow of the river or regulation of water withdrawal for industrial, agricultural and domestic use.
To add to the above, the committee came out with 30 other recommendations to contain the “incalculable damage caused to the nirmalta (purity) and aviralta (free flow) of the river” making it amongst the ten most polluted rivers of the world.
Delays and functioning of STP along the banks of the river, figured prominently in the list of concerns of the committee. Even after getting approvals for STPs at Badrinath, Devprayag, Karnaprayag, Rudraprayag, Joshimath and Varanasi, the projects could not be completed even after seven to eight years, due to various reasons, the panel said.
The committee sought details of the projects, including completed and scheduled to be completed, during 2015-16, along with cost escalation, time overruns and the authorities which would bear the escalated costs.
It recommended for the conversion of ongoing projects as Central projects, apprehending that the delays in completion of the ongoing sewage infrastructure projects might have resulted in cost escalation, putting a major burden on the States which are already facing acute financial crunches.
The committee also took note of the huge gap of about 40 per cent between the installed capacity and actual operational capacities of the STPs with the aggravated levels of pollution and the shrinking of the river.
The committee recommended suitable enhancement of the capacities of existing STPs and sewage networks or setting up of new ones to cater to the increasing demographic pressure, expanding urbanization, industrialization for the next two decades. Penalties should also be imposed for violating the pollution limits by the industries/cities.
Lack of scientific and technical resources in Central Pollution Control Board and State Pollution Control Boards was also taken up by the committee in its report. It called for suitable measures to ensure availability of appropriately qualified and suitably trained manpower in requisite numbers for surveys and investigation, project preparation, implementation and monitoring strategies of the projects.
Speaking on the report of the Committee on Estimates (2015-16), Joshi also expressed concern on how construction of dams has become a major stumbling block to the river cleaning exercise by affecting the natural flow of the river. The ecological flow of the river has self-cleaning properties. He suggested that the Government should not go ahead with any hydro-power project till the Supreme Court takes a call on the issue.
