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.
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.
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
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
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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