Cleaning of river Ganga has one of Narendra Modi's biggest goals to achieve ever since he took charge as Prime Minister of the country. An allocation of Rs 3,703 crore has been made in the Union Budget for the marathon cleaning exercise. In fact, Rs 2,958 crore of it has been already spent for the sake of the holy river. What about the results? Disappointing to say the least!
A Right To Information (RTI) application moved by a Delhi-based 10th Class Student Aishwarya Sharma has only exposed that 'Namami Gange' programme is only on paper and there are no signs of improvement in the condition of river Ganga.
In 2014-15, Rs 2,137 crore was allocated for Ganga cleaning. Later, About Rs 84 crore has been cut and the fund was brought down to Rs 2,053 crore. Only Rs 326 crore out of Rs 1,700 crore was spent.
In 2015-16, Centre cut the budget allocation from Rs 2,750 crore to Rs 1,650 crore. Rs 18 crore of the fund isn't spent yet.
Aishwarya is upset about the fact that cleaning Ganga was used more for luring the masses during 2014 election campaign by Narendra Modi. She feels NaMo isn't serious about the mission and hence he attended only one meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) so far. She also complains that Centre don't even have details of the expenses of Rs 2,500 crore allocation for 2016-17.
NDA proudly announced that it would spend Rs 20,000 crore in a span of 5 years for Ganga cleaning.
A Right To Information (RTI) application moved by a Delhi-based 10th Class Student Aishwarya Sharma has only exposed that 'Namami Gange' programme is only on paper and there are no signs of improvement in the condition of river Ganga.
In 2014-15, Rs 2,137 crore was allocated for Ganga cleaning. Later, About Rs 84 crore has been cut and the fund was brought down to Rs 2,053 crore. Only Rs 326 crore out of Rs 1,700 crore was spent.
In 2015-16, Centre cut the budget allocation from Rs 2,750 crore to Rs 1,650 crore. Rs 18 crore of the fund isn't spent yet.
Aishwarya is upset about the fact that cleaning Ganga was used more for luring the masses during 2014 election campaign by Narendra Modi. She feels NaMo isn't serious about the mission and hence he attended only one meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) so far. She also complains that Centre don't even have details of the expenses of Rs 2,500 crore allocation for 2016-17.
NDA proudly announced that it would spend Rs 20,000 crore in a span of 5 years for Ganga cleaning.