Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is assessing the water quality of 540 rivers including River Ganga and Yamuna at 1533 locations in association with State Pollution Control Boards/Pollution Control Committees throughout the country.
The water quality monitoring results reflect that organic matter and bacterial population of faecal origin continue to dominate the pollution problem and that the rivers are polluted in downstream of major urban centers due to large scale water abstraction and discharge of untreated/partially treated/treated wastewater not meeting the criteria.
In its 39th Report, CAG has reported that an amount of Rs. 2,133.76 crore and
Rs. 422.13 crore remained unutilized in National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the State Program Management Groups, respectively, as on 31 March 2017.
Basically, projects are executed mostly by state agencies and expenditure are incurred by them. NMCG releases the fund quarterly based on the projected fund demand of the state. The government has taken various steps to increase the utilization of the funds, e.g. time bound tendering & project award, release of mobilization advance, revised Administrative Approval and Expenditure Sanction (AA&ES) for the stuck-up projects, solving the long pending issues of land, No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from various agencies etc.
This is likely to result in creation of additional treatment capacity through Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and better fund utilization. Now the projects are being sanctioned with 10-15 years operation and maintenance cost for sewerage projects to ensure long term viability and smooth maintenance of these projects, helping in Ganga rejuvenation.
Further, river front development projects have been taken up including development/ rehabilitation of Ghats and crematoria to have a long term impact and resulting in better human- river interaction.
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