Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who has taken charge of the Ganga rejuvenation ministry—a department where the work was moving at a sluggish pace—is promising a lot more aviralta (flow) in the operations of the department. Nirmal Ganga Aviral Ganga (Clean and smooth flowing Ganga) is the mission of the Rs 2,000 crore Namami Ganga project, a flagship scheme of the Modi government.
Gadkari has assigned the task of Ganga cleanup to the newly appointed Satyapal Singh, minister of state for water resources, river development and ganga rejuvenation. "He is a former cop. I have requested that he use the police lathi and get cracking with the case,'' said Gadkari. Singh has been tasked with holding monthly progress meetings with the chief secretaries of the six states through which Ganga flows.
He has also promised to get all the tendering work, for the various effluent and sewage treatment projects, ready by the end of the year, and assured of visible changes by March 2019. If early elections are not held, the country will go to polls by 2019.
Gadkari has continued on with the groundwork laid by his predecessor Uma Bharti, whose work and vision he spoke glowingly of at an event on Wednesday. But with the clout that Gadkari wields, executing those plans will be quicker. For instance, he spoke of creating a market for recycled water, encouraging effluent treatment plants to continue with their work and accrue additional income. He has tapped the railway ministry as a potential buyer of recycled water, which could be used to clean the trains. The recycled water could also be used by national thermal power plants.
Gadkari is even seeking takers to separate methane and carbon dioxide from sewage and market them as biofuels. He cited a similar project in Nagpur, where bio-energy is used to run clean buses in the public transport system.
The minister wants accountability at every level in the system. He has also promised that every tree planted along the banks of the river will be tagged to ensure that plantation drives don't end up with dead saplings.
The ministry is also planning to develop 4,500 villages on the banks of the river as Adarsh Ganga Grams, in association with Bharti's new ministry, drinking water and sanitation. The minister has asked charitable trusts to adopt villages or take over some task in them.
