Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

190 Industries Polluting Ganga Shut Down: Centre

Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bishweshwar Tudu informed that out of 165 industries not complying with the norms, closure orders have been issued to nine and show-cause notices have been served to 156 polluting industries
March 22, 2022

The central government said that out of 1,080 industries polluting the Ganga in five states, 190 have been closed.

Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bishweshwar Tudu in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha said that 165 industries are still not complying with the norms. Out of these industries, closure orders have been issued to nine and show-cause notices have been served to 156 polluting industries.

Tudu said that about 28 crore litres of waste is released daily into the mainstream of river Ganga. The 1,080 polluting industries are located in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

This list of polluting industries has been prepared after consultation with the pollution control boards of the respective states. Technical examination of such units was done from October 2020 to March 2021 and action was taken by the respective State Pollution Boards on the basis of its report.

The pollution in river Ganga is not only due to the discharge of effluents from industries, but also due to domestic wastewater as well as from solid waste ingress into the river. As per Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) data on Grossly Polluting Industries (GPIs) inspection in 2020-21, about 280.17 Million Litres per Day (MLD) effluents are being discharged into river Ganga.

The government of India launched the Namami Gange Programme in 2015 with a budgetary outlay of ₹20,000 crore. Under this programme, a diverse set of interventions for cleaning and rejuvenation of river Ganga and its tributaries were taken up, including wastewater treatment, solid waste management, riverfront management (ghats and crematoria), maintaining continuous flow, rural sanitation, afforestation, biodiversity conservation and public participation, etc.

Namami Gange is a scientific programme and has been developed with an integrated approach based on the Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP) prepared by a consortium of seven IITs led by IIT Kanpur.

A total of 364 projects have been taken up at a sanctioned cost of ₹30,853.5 crore, out of which, 183 projects are completed.  The projects are taken up along the main stem towns of river Ganga as well as on 15 tributaries, namely Yamuna, Kosi, Saryu, Ramganga, Kali (West), Kali (East), Gomti, Son, Barakar, Hindon, Burhi Gandak, Banka, Damodar, Rispana-Bindal and Chambal.

Considering the need and spread of the programme, government of India has further approved Namami Gange Mission –II with a budgetary outlay of ₹22,500 crore till 2026 for ongoing and new projects/interventions.