New Delhi : The much acclaimed plan of Narendra Modi government — of real-time monitoring of the Ganga — has failed to take off even after one year of regular noises made by Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti.
For the clean Ganga mission, Uma had set the deadline of June 30, which is just five days away; it was expected that by this date all the 3200 polluting industries in the Ganga basin states would have installed effluent and air and water quality monitoring devices.
Forget about the private industries, even the Central Pollution Control Board has failed to install its 113 monitoring stations along the river.
The board was also given the target of June 30 but its alibi is that the concerned state governments did not allot the required land for installation of the equipment. The CPCB officials have ruled out installation of monitoring stations in the near future as well, as they say the project is delayed by at least one year.
The CPCB has again asked the state governments of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal to expedite the handing over of land for installation of the devices. Insiders say the board is blaming the states and taking the plea that they have not yet even floated tenders for the required equipment.
Uma had constituted the National Mission for Clean Ganga, which was to start procuring equipment for the board,
but it too lost direction on noticing that the CPCB was showing little interest in installation of the monitoring stations.
While private industries are supposed to install the equipment to prevent flow of effluents into the river, the CPCB stations will be keeping a tab on any discharge in the river
