Two separate committees formed to prepare draft of Ganga Act

The Government has formed two separate committees to prepare draft of Ganga Act, which aims at expediting implementation of Namami Gange programme and lay down guidelines to rid the holy river of silt.

A committee under Justice (Retd) Girdhar Malviya has been entrusted with responsibility of preparing the draft act that should have provisions to ensure cleanliness and uninterrupted e-flow of Ganga, an official statement said.

79-year-old Malviya is chairman of Ganga Mahasabha, which was formed by his grandfather and Banaras Hindu University founder Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya.

Ex-secretary of Legislative Department VK Bhasin, IIT-Delhi Professor AK Gosain and IIT Roorkee Professor Nayan Sharma are the other members of the panel which will also have National Mission for Clean Ganga director Sundeep as the member secretary.

The committee's tenure is of three months, which may be extended by as many months if need be, the statement said.

Similarly, a four-member committee has been floated under chairmanship of Madhav Chitale, member of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) to prepare guidelines for de-silting the river stretch between Bhimgauda (Uttarakhand) and Farakka (West Bengal).

Secretaries of Ministries of Water Resources and Environment, Forest and Climate Change will be members of the panel, besides Central Water and Power Research Station (Pune) director Mukesh Sinha.

"The committee has also been asked to establish difference between de-silting and sand mining and also to establish need for de-silting for (ensuing) ecology and e-flow of the river Ganga.

"The tenure of the committee would be for a period of three months," the statement said.

Both the committees have been formed in line with statements made by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti to this regard during NGRBA's sixth meeting on July 4 here.