National Mission For Clean Ganga- Details, Objectives, Initiatives, Activities

The National Ganga Council is also known as the National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection, and Management of River Ganga. The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has a motive to rejuvenate the holy river Ganga and make it pollution free with technical and financial assistance as provided by the Central Government and the State level Programme Management Groups in the state of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Let us know more about this.

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Why Is National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) Required?

The river Ganga is the largest in Asia, covering almost 26% of the Indian landmass. It flows for more than 2500 km having its origin in Gomukh in Uttarakhand, and flows down up to Ganga Sagar in West Bengal and merges with the Bay of Bengal.

Approximately 1.4 billion liters of sewage and polluted particles were dumped untreated in the river in 2010. Therefore in the year 2011, the Indian Government took efforts that were engineer-based to restore and clean Ganga. Thereafter, the Government established the National Ganga River Basin Authority to maintain the river’s ecological flow, biodiversity value, water quality, and sustained ecosystem services. However, it was not successful due to various reasons.

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Details Of The Policy

A five-tier structure for control, prevention, and abating pollution of river Ganga at district, state, and National level under the Environment Protection Act 1986 was formulated. This structure comprises of the following:

The Honorable Prime minister of India heading the National Ganga Council
Honorable Union Minister of Jal Shakti heading the Empowered Task Force
National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)
State Ganga Committees
District Ganga Committees

Objectives Of National Mission For Clean Ganga (NMCG)

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) aims to reduce pollution, including treatment of wastewater, diversion, and interception. Various treatment plans such as effluent treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, pioneering technology, apt in situ treatment, bioremediation, and many other plans and projects.

The major objectives for National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) are mentioned below:

To keep a check on the inflow of sewage at the exit points, instant and short steps are undertaken to curb pollution, boosting and rehabilitating existing STP
To ensure the continuous water flow without having any impact on natural season variations
To maintain and restore the groundwater and the surface flow
To maintain and regenerate the natural vegetation of the area
The regenerate and conserve the riparian biodiversity and aquatic biodiversity of the basin of the river
To initiate and motivate the public and masses to participate in the various processes such as management, rejuvenation, and protection of the river.
To undertake huge afforestation activities and implement plans and policies for conserving varieties of fishes, turtles, dolphins, and other aquatic animals.

Initiatives And Activities

For cleaning and reducing the pollution of the river Ganga, the Government has performed a lot of activities and undertaken many initiatives. Before implementing National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), the Government had taken major initiatives such as:

Ganga Action Plan
National River Conservation Plan
National River Ganga Basin Authority
Government Clean-Up Campaign
Namami Gange
The then Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitleyji had announced the Namami Ganga Yojna on 10th July 2014 implemented by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). This is a flagship program with a budget of Rs. 20000 crore for reducing pollution of the river and rejuvenating and conserving the river banks. The pillars of Namami Ganga are mentioned below:
Public Awareness
Afforestation and Biodiversity
River surface cleaning and development of the riverfront
Industrial effluent Monitoring and Sewerage Treatment infrastructure

Phases Of National Mission For Clean Ganga (NMCG)

First Phase

National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) received Rs. 4535 crore valid up to December 2021 from World Bank for the National Ganga River Basin

Second Phase

The second phase of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) includes some of the major activities such as:

Cleaning Projects

It includes spillover projects such as cleaning the tributaries such as the Kali river and Yamuna river.

DBOT Projects

The ongoing Design, Build, Operate and Transfer project in the state of Bihar, namely Begusarai, Munger and Buxar, received Rs. 1209 crore

Hybrid Annuity Projects

This loan is sanctioned for the tributaries of Ganga in Uttar Pradesh, namely Saharanpur, Meerut, and Agra.

Other Initiatives

It includes management and communication programs, incentives to Urban and Local bodies based on performance, improvement in investment resilience, institutional development, and many more.

Details of Funds spent

A total budget of Rs. 20,000 crore was sanctioned for the Namami Ganga project with an objective of rejuvenation, conservation, and abatement of pollution of river Ganga and its tributaries. The budget allocated and utilized for the program up to June 2021 is summarized below:

Financial Year	Allocation of Final Budget(Rs. In crores)	The budget released by the Government(Rs. In Crores)
2021 – 2022(Upto June 2021)	1450.02	575
2020 – 2021	1300	1300
2019 – 2020	1553.44	1553.40
2018 – 2019	2370	2307.50
2017 – 2018	3023.42	1423.12
2016 – 2017	1675	1675
2015 – 2016	1650	1632
2014 – 2015	2053	326
Total	15074.88	10792.02

State-wise year-wise details of the budget

An array of activities such as public participation, biodiversity conservation, afforestation, rural sanitation, Aviral Dhara, RiverFront management, abatement of solid waste, industrial effluent, domestic sewage, and many more for rejuvenating and cleaning river Ganga under the Namami Ganga program.

Therefore the state-wise and year-wise details of the budget released by the Government and expended by the authorities is tabulated below:

State/Year	2021 – 2022(up to June 2021)	2020 – 2021	2019 – 2020	2018- 2019	2017-2018	2016 – 2017	2015 – 2016	2014 -2015	Total
NMCG Expenditure	21.98	178.92	223.06	175.76	105.94	85.73	36.01	17.33	844.73
Public Health department Himachal Pradesh	–	1.25	–	–	–	–	–	–	1.25
Urban Improvement Trust Rajasthan						20.0			20.0
Environment Planning & Coordination Madhya Pradesh						6.50	3.39		9.89
Haryana					6.88	52.73	30		89.61
Delhi		235	214.47	310.69	81.57	2.17	4.96		848.86
West Bengal	0.94	105.06	70.60	227.62	249.35	117.25	185.79	73.85	1030.46
Jharkhand	1.73	28.03	30.50	74.23	21.72	49.53	27.83	0.97	234.54
Bihar	5.68	194.43	1185.17	673.03	367.18	82.03	124.23		2631.75
Uttar Pradesh	37.58	472.46	821.09	823.77	549.88	602.90	153.35	74.58	3535.61
Uttarakhand	79.54	124.82	128.20	341.44	242.49	43.97	37.04	4.26	1001.76
Total	147.45	1339.97	2673.09	2626.54	1625.01	1062.81	602.60	170.99	10248.46

All the figures in the table are in crores

State-wise details of projects, cost, and completed projects

The state-wise details of projects sanctioned, their allocation of cost, and all the completed projects are summarized below:

Sr. No	Name of the state	Number of projects	Number of Projects Completed	Sanctioned and allocated Amount(Rs. In Crores)
1.	Rajasthan	1	0	258.48
2.	Haryana	2	2	217.87
3.	Himachal Pradesh	1	0	11.57
4.	Delhi	12	2	2365.39
5.	West Bengal	62	35	4180.39
6.	Jharkhand	13	7	315.92
7.	Bihar	53	11	6086.18
8.	Uttar Pradesh	104	45	12307.37
9.	Uttarakhand	59	45	1659.17
10.	Others	39	11	2832.9
	Total	346	158	30235.24

Final Words

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is a massive project to prevent, protect, and rejuvenate the Ganga river. The successful implementation of the plan requires a strategic blueprint including conservation of biodiversity, use of digital media, mass awareness campaign, and strict monitoring.

Frequently Asked Questions

State the challenges faced by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)

There are numerous challenges faced by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). Some of them include:
Rampant and illegal construction along the bedside of the river curb the cleaning of the river
Major parts of the river are polluted as it is affected by five different states, including West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The industrial pollution from sugar and paper mills from Kali river, Ramganga and Kosi, distilleries and tanneries in Kanpur and other such industrial waste is dumped in the river without any treatment.
Violation of Ganga ecological flow norms
Poor Governance
Lack of supervision and proper monitoring

Who started the Clean Ganga Mission?

The first plan to clean Ganga was taken in the year 1986 with Ganga Action Plan – I. Thereafter in the year 2015, Namami Ganga Project was launched by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. Under this project, Rs. 20000 crore will be received by the World Bank to clean, prevent and protect the river Ganga by the end of the year 2019. However, due to the massive area and huge task involved, it may take more time to complete the same.

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