The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has stated that it has found deficiencies in the very system that has been instituted to carry out the prestigious and huge Clean Ganga project. It has requested that the Government take steps to ensure that the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) is working efficiently and the Clean Ganga Mission is completed by 2020. This is a fairly tough ask considering the fact that the Indian Government has estimated that it may take around 20 years to complete the project. In fact, the time that has been estimated to just come up with a proper plan for this itself is three years.
PAC call to expedite work by NGRBA
The PAC has come out with a report entitled “Water Pollution in India”. In this report the parliamentary entity has also suggested that the Government come up with a proper plan to develop the riverfront areas as part of the project. It has also stated that the civic society as well as the private entities be made part of the endeavor. Incidentally, the PAC is led by KV Thomas. Ganga is right now among the five most polluted rivers in the world and this has caused immense distress to the PAC.
WWF uses endangered turtles to help clean Ganga
In what can be termed a novel action, the World Wildlife Fund has released 532 turtles belonging to the endangered species. This has been done in a river that is located at the Maqdoompur village, which is a part of the Hastinapur wildlife sanctuary. In the event, the local people also took part in an enthusiastic manner. It is also being stated that they could be one of the major reasons for the success of the programme.
The turtles belong to the three-striped roofed variety and are also known as the Batagur Dhongoka. They are known to consume any form of agent that can contaminate a river – something that is expected to be of immense value in ensuring the project is successful. This is also the reason why they were chosen for helping to clean the river. The 532 turtles had been hatched only about five months before and in the interim they had been looked after in a controlled environment. The eggs had been laid by breeding and mature turtles and then the locals had handed them over to the WWF officials for safekeeping.
Nullahs being inspected for Clean Ganga
The NDA Government had recently set up special teams for inspecting the nullahs of river Ganga with 120 officials from different divisions of the Ministry of Water Resource and Ganga Rejuvenation. Work recently started on that front with the units inspecting 108 among them. Incidentally, the Ministry of Water Resource and Ganga Rejuvenation had stipulated a period of 45 days for starting work on the project and inspection has been begun. It was stated that the reports of inspection would be provided to the relevant authorities within a couple of days of starting the inspection processes.
