Question : POLLUTANTS IN GANGA

(a) whether the National Cancer Registry Programme has recently submitted a report to the Government regarding the level of pollutants in the river Ganga;

(b) if so, the findings thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;

(c) whether gall bladder cancer has been found to be the second highest in the world and prostate cancer as the highest in the country along the course of the river Ganga due to the presence of heavy metals in the river water;

(d) if so, the facts and the details thereof; and

(e) the steps being taken by the Government to control the pollution level in the river Ganga?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRIMATI JAYANTHI NATARAJAN)

(a) to (e) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

Statement referred to in reply to parts ( a) to (e) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 230 to be answered on Monday, the 10th December, 2012 on “Pollutants in Ganga” by Shrimiti Jyoti Dhurve.

(a) No Sir.

(b) Does not arise.

(c) & (d) As per the information received from National Centre for Disease Information and Research (ICMR), the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP), Bangaluru does not have any Population Based Cancer Registries along the course of the Ganga. The NCRP has also informed that it is not possible for them to say whether incidence of cancer (including cancer of gallbladder and prostate) is highest in the country along the course of Ganga

(e) Ganga Action Plan (GAP) is being implemented since 1985 for undertaking pollution abatement activities in the identified polluted stretches of the river Ganga through implementation of works like interception and diversion of sewage, setting up of sewage treatment plants, low cost sanitation works, crematoria works etc. Under GAP, a total of 83 sewage treatment plants have been sanctioned for undertaking pollution abatement activities in the identified polluted stretches of the river Ganga, of which 69 sewage treatment plants with a capacity to treat 1091 million litres per day (mld) have been created.

Further, National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has been constituted as an empowered, planning, financing, monitoring and coordinating authority with the objective to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the river Ganga by adopting a holistic river basin approach.

Implementation of river pollution abatement works is an ongoing and collective effort of the Central and State Governments under which various schemes of pollution abatement are implemented by the Government. The NGRBA has also resolved that under Mission Clean Ganga, no untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluents shall flow into Ganga by 2020.