Law to expedite Clean Ganga plan soon

Faced with worryingly slow progress of the clean Ganga (Namami Gange) project, the Water ministry looks set to bring in a new law to expedite implementation of the ambitious plan.

This comes more than 15 months after the proposed “Rejuvenation of Ganga” legislation was deliberated upon during the fifth meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2015.

If enacted, it will be the first-of-its-kind legislation as Parliament so far has not brought any inter-state rivers under its effective control.

Union water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation minister Uma Bharti said Monday after chairing the sixth meeting of NGRBA that “five Ganga basin states have agreed in principle to the idea” of an overarching “Ganga Act”.

An expert committee headed by Justice (Retd.) Girdhar Malaviya has been tasked to make suggestions on the proposed legislation.

Sources in the ministry said that though the creation of a new Ganga Act has been in the pipeline, Monday’s decision might have been fuelled by the lack of coordination between the Centre and states on the execution of Namami Gange project works, which were kicked-off more than a year ago.

“Water is a state subject as per entry 17 in the Constitution, and the proposed Act would aim at bringing most of the execution of the clean Ganga programme under the Central government’s control. This might create more fissures and be resisted by the states,” a Water ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Mr Manoj Mishra, convenor of NGO Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan, said: “While water is a state subject, inter-state rivers, as per entry 56, falls in the Union list, giving power to the Centre to legislate on development and regulation of a particular river (in this case Ganga), thereby bringing it under its effective control.”

He added, “Though the Centre can legislate on this matter, it will not be easy given the federal structure of our country. It would be difficult without taking states on board. If the Act actually gets enacted, it will be the first-of-its-kind and hopefully positive. It will depend on the draft and on how things play out.”