In five years, Clean Ganga Mission sees 15-fold hike in govt spend

Read | Govt plans month-long rafting, kayaking expedition on Ganga

The amount will be spent on schemes and projects for the Ganga and its tributaries, including on rehabilitation and upgradation of existing sewage treatment plants (STPs) besides commissioning of new STPs, Mishra said.

The Namami Gange scheme was lauched in 2014-15 by the Narendra Modi government. The actual expenditure rose from Rs 170.99 crore in the first year to Rs 2,626.54 crore in 2018-19. So far, 298 projects, including 40 related to STPs, have been sanctioned under the scheme. The Centre has allocated Rs 20,000 crore to be spent on cleaning the Ganga for the period of 2015-2020.

Meanwhile, Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Monday said that the Ganga will be clean between Gangotri and Haridwar by 2021. He said that all untreated domestic sewage as well as industrial effluents will be completely stopped before the Kumbh is organised at Haridwar in 2021.

After launching the ‘Ganga Aamantran Abhiyan’, a month-long rafting and kayaking expedition on the river, Shekhawat said, “There is a notion that Ganga is the most polluted river in the country. This is not true. We hope that this expedition will help in proving this notion false.”

The minister said the government is committed to cleaning the entire length of the Ganga. However, he indicated that it may take longer than expected, saying that it took 30 years to clean the river Rhine in Germany.

The rafting and kayaking expedition will start from Devprayag on October 10 and culminate at Ganga Sagar on November 12.