New Delhi: The Modi government has asked corporate houses, spiritual organizations and the global Indian community to fund specific projects in the mission to clean up the Ganges River.
Overseas Indians could get their projects named after family members.
The move stems from the government’s view that the program requires “all-round participation to succeed” and previous efforts had failed because they were bureaucracy driven, a senior official told The Hindustan Times.
A third of India’s 1.2 billion people live in the floodplains along the 2,510-km river. An icon of the Hindu faith, the river is dying a slow death due to filth, untreated sewage and industrial runoff. Only about 45 percent of the 11 billion liters of sewage generated from 181 towns along the river is treated.
On May 13, the federal cabinet had approved the flagship Namami Gange program with a budget outlay of 200 billion rupees for the next five years — a four-fold increase. The National Mission for Clean Ganga (local name for Ganges), the authority implementing the program, is set to launch the first public-private partnership program in June on test mode in eight towns.
The project involves installing and maintaining equipment to trap “visible,” floating pollutants on the river’s surface. The equipment include fence-like devices called booms to physically cordon floating debris from bathing steps or ghats and high-tech aerators that pump in oxygen essential for breaking down biological wastes.
To institutionalize the framework, the government has called for proposals from organizations and potential investors and donors.
For instance, spiritual organizations, such as the one led by Kerala-based Mata Amritanandamayi, and sanitation NGO Sulabh International have volunteered to build community toilets. A senior government official confirmed that an undisclosed number of private organizations will take on similar roles when the project kicks off in June.
To ensure dubious firms don’t plough in slush money, contributors will have to submit documentary proof of legal status and details of registration, foreign contribution and financial status. A committee with members from relevant government departments will vet the entries.
The government is also keen on roping in Indians abroad among whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi is popular. Donations by overseas Indians will be routed through the India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians, a not-for-profit trust set up by the ministry of overseas Indian affairs.