GRBA to have its first meeting Monday

New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) Newly-formed Ganga River Basin
Authority (GRBA) will meet for the first time Monday under the
chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to streamline
steps to clean up the river.

In the meeting, chief ministers of states through which
the Ganga flows such as Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh will
discuss ways to clean up the river in a much systematic way
than has been the case so far.

This will be yet another bid to make the river, known as
the lifeline of northern India, pollution free.

The country has already spent Rs 960 crore in the last
20 years in the cleanliness drive, but it is no cleaner today
than it was two decades ago with over 75 per cent of the
pollution coming from municipal sewage and another 25 per cent
coming from industrial effluents, Environment Minister Jairam
Ramesh said.

A senior environment ministry official said the states
will be advised to sign a tripartite pact with the Centre and
civic bodies on their respective roles in cleaning up the
river, which feeds over 40 per cent of the total population in
the country.

The issue of roping in international financial
institutions to fund the cleaning up of the Ganga, as is being
done for the Yamuna by a Japanese organisation under the
Yamuna Action Plan in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, will
also come up at the meeting.

Besides, the issue of identifying an institute to prepare
a master-plan for the Ganga river basin would be discussed,
the official said.

The government will also discuss ways to spend the money
allocated for the cleaning work and check various sources of
pollutant loads, he added.

The authority, which was set up a few months back after
getting PM's approval in February, has been allocated Rs 500
crore in the 2009-10 budget for comprehensive management of
the basin. PTI AJ
JVN