Cabinet approves new body to tackle Ganga pollution

New National Council for River Ganga replaces National Ganga River Basin Authority, will oversee pollution prevention and rejuvenation

The Cabinet on Wednesday gave more teeth to the National Mission for Clean Ganga in its fight against pollution in the river by creating a new body to administer it.

The approval of the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities Order, 2016 envisages the setting up of the National Council for River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) (NCRG).

The new body will act as an authority replacing the existing National Ganga River Basin Authority for overall responsibility for superintendence of pollution prevention and rejuvenation of river Ganga Basin.

"The Order lays down a new institutional structure for policy and implementation in fast track manner and empowers National Mission for Clean Ganga to discharge its functions in an independent and accountable manner." The government said in a press release.

The new body will be directly under the Prime Minister, who will chair it. The NCRG will have powers to issue directions and also to exercise the powers under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to enable it to carry out efficiently its mandate, a press release by the government said.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has also been elevated to an authority status. Although, the NMCG has been functional as a registered Society since 2012 its role has been largely limited to fund the projects to implementing organizations.

It neither had the mandate to take cognizance of various threats to river Ganga nor the powers to issue directions to the concerned authorities polluters. It will also set up of an empowered 'task force' to ensure that the Ministries, Departments and State Governments come up with an action plan with specific activities and timeliness for rejuvenation and protection of River Ganga.

The council will also ensure co-ordination amongst the ministries and departments and state governments.

"It has been decided to grant a Mission status to the Authority with corresponding powers under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to take cognizance of the provision of the said Act and follow up thereon. Similarly, there is adequate delegation of financial and administrative powers which will distinctly establish NMCG as both responsibility and accountability centre and effectively accelerate the process of project implementation for Ganga Rejuvenation," the government said.

At the State level, it is proposed to create the State Ganga Committees in each of the defined States as Authority, to function as Authorities in respect of each State and perform the superintendence, direction and control over the District Ganga Protection Committees under their jurisdiction.

The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) Phase-I was launched in 1985 and later GAP Phase-II was initiated in 1993 with the objective of improving the water quality of river Ganga and was later expanded to include some of its tributaries also. In May, 2015, the Government approved the Namami Gange programme as a comprehensive mechanism to take up initiatives for rejuvenation of river Ganga and its tributaries.