Question : Schemes for Checking Water Pollution

(a) whether the Government has received complaints regarding tardy implementation of various central schemes for checking the water pollution during the last several years;
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the corrective steps taken by the Government in this regard;
(c) the various measures taken by the Government for ensuring proper implementation of the schemes related to water pollution as well as proper utilisation of the funds allocated in this regard; and
(d) the details of funds allocated/ provided by the Government for control of water pollution during each of the last three years and the current year, scheme and State-wise?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

(a) Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has been receiving complaints from time to time, regarding issues relating to environmental pollution including water pollution.

(b) & (c) The Ministry is implementing a number of Schemes for control and prevention of water pollution which include National River Conservation Programme (NRCP), National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP), National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA) and Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) under which financial assistance is provided to the State implementing agencies.

The Ministry has been supplementing the efforts of the State Governments in abatement of pollution in identified stretches of various rivers, lakes etc. Funds are released to the State implementing agencies based on physical and financial progress. The physical and financial progress reports are examined and unspent balances are taken into account before releasing the next installment of funds. The monitoring process, inter alia, include mandatory audit of accounts of grantee organization, submission of audited utilization certificates, expenditure statement and a progress report of the activities conducted by the grantee organization. Several measures have been taken to improve implementation and efficacy of projects under NRCP, which include (i) Signing of Tripartite Memorandum of Agreements with the State Governments / Urban Local Bodies, (ii) Independent Appraisal of Detailed Project Reports by professional institutions, (iii) Third Party Inspection of projects, (iv) Regular review of progress of implementation of schemes by State Government / Central Government Officers, including site visits.

(d) State-wise details of the funds released during the last three years and current year under various schemes are given at Annexure.

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