Donate for Ganga clean-up project: Govt to India Inc

The Union government has sought contributions from the corporate sector to implement the Ganga clean-up project, a pet scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Urging India Inc to generously donate for ridding the 2,500-long mighty river of pollution, Union water Resources Minister Uma Bharti said on Wednesday that money would be collected wherever possible and would never come in the way of cleaning up Ganga.

Narendra Modi, who represents Varanasi in Lok Sabha, created a separate portfolio for Ganga rejuvenation and handed it to Bharti along with water resources.

While a ministerial group was formed to oversee the planning and implementation of the onerous task, an inter-ministerial panel was set up earlier this month to prepare a draft action plan in a month.

The panel’s report is expected in a few days.

However, the new dispensation is yet to make its intentions clear on the National Ganga River Basin Authority, which the previous UPA government had set up under the Prime Minister’s chairmanship with chief ministers of states along the Ganga basin as members.

The Congress-led government announced at having spent Rs 3000 crore since former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi launched the Ganga Action Plan in 1986.

In 2010, a consortium of  IITS came out with a blueprint for Ganga clean-up and gave a series of technical suggestions in its report with the caveat that the task would be hugely expensive.

Bharti said there will not be shortage of funds for Ganga rejuvenation and the private sector has also offered to help.