Ganga cleaning: Centre to spend Rs 30,000 crore for people living alongside river

As part of its mission to clean the Ganges, the Centre will spend Rs 30,000 crore in the next four years on conservation by strengthening the livelihood of the people living along the banks of the river.

Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti also said that the protection of the Ganga is economics and not only a religious issue.

Inaugurating the Detailed Project Report preparation of forestry intervention for Ganga at Dehradun, Bharti called upon the youth to join in the Mission and underlined the need to harmonise policies made at the higher level with the needs of the grass-roots level.

Some 50 crore people depend on Ganga for their livelihood. Half of those who depend on it would lose their "lifeline" if it were to go dry. It's therefore imperative to maintain uninterrupted flow of the river, she said.

"Ganga is not only a river with religious importance but many people depend on it for their livelihood. We want the (clean Ganga) campaign to be associated with employment and livelihood," she said.

The Water Resources Ministry will spend Rs 30,000 crore in the next four years as part of its Namami Gange Mission to strengthen the livelihood of the bankside dwellers, Bharti said.

On the pollution of the river by effluent-discharging industries, Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar said 630 such industries were identified.

"As much as 630 polluting industries were identified along Ganga of which 440 belonged to tanneries mainly near Kanpur. Most of such industries have prepared themselves to create pollution monitoring system at their installations," he said.

Javdekar said a new policy with regard to dredging of silt from the river beds has been contemplated on and also that the establishment of Institute for Himalayan Studies is underway to take care of the upper Himalayan basins of Ganga.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat advocated dredging in the rivers for a better ecology. He also stressed on the need to replace pine trees with broad-leaf plants.

"There is a need to replace pine trees with broad leaf plants. Pine forests have spoiled the bio-diversity of the region as it does not allow undergrowth and invite forest fire," he said.

Bharti also highlighted Uttarakhand's potential in growing medicinal plants which AYUSH Minister Sports Minister Shripad Yesso Naik and Sarbananda Sonwal said, needed to be promoted along Ganga basins and assured to mobilise youths to the missionary task of rejuvenating Ganga.