Nirmal Ganga Sahbhagita The Government has launched Nirmal Ganga Sahbhagita, an initiative to assist the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Executing Agencies located on the banks of the river Ganga for achieving the objective of Clean Ganga. The initiative aims at sensitizing the ULBs about the pollution in river Ganga arising primarily due to dumping of solid waste in the river/nallas and to involve them in a long term engagement in stoppage of the solid waste flow from nallas/drains to the river. Apart from this, ULBs can perform certain activities for achieving the shared objective of rejuvenating the river Ganga. The initiative is an ongoing process and is not in the nature of a project. Under National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), so far, 25 projects (23 River Front Development-RFD and related projects in West Bengal and two Sewerage projects in Uttarakhand) have been completed and 35 projects are under different stages of implementation in five states on main stem of Ganga (13 in Uttarakhand, 8 in Uttar Pradesh, four each in Bihar and West Bengal). This includes six institutional and implementation support projects. This information was given by Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti in a written reply in Lok Sabha today. Samir/jk
