(a) whether the Government has formulated any time bound action plan in order to monitor disposal of sewage in the river Ganga without treatment;
(b) whether the Union Government has formulated any action plan for better coordination with States;
(c) whether foreign assistance is being sought for ensuring purification, cleaning and free flow of the water of the river Ganga; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANGA REJUVENATION
(SUSHRI UMA BHARTI)
(a) As per NGRBA framework, it is envisaged that no untreated sewage shall be disposed to Ganga by the year 2020. Accordingly Namami Gange programme has been launched which provides necessary actions towards achieving the objective.
(b )As per the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) framework, the chief ministers of the 5 states namely Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal are members of Nationa Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).
In order to seek assistance from these states, the present Government has taken the following steps:
ii) High Level Task Force (HLTF) has been formed with Chief Secretaries from the state government as members. Regular HLTF meetings are held in which necessary coordinations desired from the state government are discussed. Till date 5 such meetings of HLTF have been completed.
iii) 3 NGRBA meetings (namely 4th, 5th and 6th) have been conducted.
iiii) Chief Secretaries of state government are the members of Empowered Steering Committee (ESC). ESC meetings (10th to 15th) has been conducted in for appraisal of projects.
ivi) 1st General Body meeting conducted in which all the states participated.
vi) 6th and 7th Governing Council''s (GC) meeting has been conducted in which representatives of state government participated.
vii) Additionally, for participatory approach to the Namami Gange programme, various open programmes and workshops are conducted to encourage participation from state government, ULBs and Gram Panchayats. Ganga Manthan, Swachh Ganga Sahbhagita and Swachh Ganga Gramin Sahbhagita programmes have been conducted.
(c) & (d) The currently ongoing “Namami Gange Programme” has not received any grant / aid from foreign countries. It is fully funded by Government of India. However, scheme for cleaning river Ganga, prior to Namami Gange, has availed financial assistance in the form of developmental loans granted by: a) World Bank (WB) amounting to 1 Billion USD and b) Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), amounting to Rs. 496.90 Crore. Also, several countries has offered technical assistance for Namami Gange Programme. At present, Germany, has committed 3 Million Euro for information, knowledge exchange, capacity building and data management.
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