Namami Gange model to be replicated for rejuvenation of other rivers, says newly-appointed NMCG chief

By Ravi Khandelwal
New Delhi [India], January 4 : The newly appointed chief of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) said the success of the Namami Gange programme will be replicated for other rivers in the country.
G Asok Kumar, who took over as the Director General of NMCG on January 1 said in an interview, "The government sees that there has been a lot of success in Ganga so that has to be replicated in other rivers. So, as a part of the national river conservation programme, which I am heading also, we have now trying to replicate and see how NRCP (National River Conservation Plan) can be modelled in the form of NMCG or how that can be brought out of the purview of the NMCG, sort of institutional set up for covering the remaining rivers of the country."
Kumar, who has worked extensively in the water sector added, "The government is very focused on getting the other rivers clean and on top of it; the good research of Ganga has really raised the aspirations of the people of other states because people who have gone to Ganga for the Kumbh have found that the water has been very clean. So, the aspirations of the people have risen. The demand from the people to have better clean water has also increased. The political will from all states have also increased because of the goodwill the government has got with the cleaning of the river (Ganga)."
He informed that 'Jal Shakti Kendras' have been set up in all districts as part of the 'Catch the Rain' campaign, where all the information related to water and the planning of water can be taken at the district level.
"That would be a vehicle for us to push forward the agenda. Now that the government has seen in the last couple of years the success of getting people together to campaign, getting institutions built for water and also showing from the top level the priority attached to the water. All these things would definitely help us in creating a conducive atmosphere for developing or cleaning the water and also focus the attention of people on water-related issues," said G Asok Kumar.
Since 2014, the National Mission for Clean Ganga under its Namami Gange programme has been working with an objective of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of Ganga.
G Asok Kumar, who also served as executive director (projects) in NMCG, said his priority will remain to complete the projects on time and in an effective manner.
He said, "My priority would be to consolidate what has been done and continue with the type of initiatives that had taken by my predecessors and also ensure that the grounding and commissioning of the schemes which we have sanctioned are taken because of Covid there was a lot of small issue coming up at the field level and grounding the things".
"Grounding of these programmes and getting them functional and continued functioning would be the most priority and the last would be the connect which in the last couple of years which we have made with the people and the Ganga that has to be strengthened and hopefully making people a part of the Ganga cleaning campaign would be strengthened and more visible", added Asok Kumar.
Amid the COVID pandemic, there are some hurdles in implementing the schemes on the ground, but the new chief of NMCG is upbeat about the implementation of schemes in Ganga basin states.
"It is a tough challenge because the Covid-19 protocols may not permit the grouping of people at the workplace. If you want to work in the field, a lot of people have to come in groups and social distancing norms may not really permit them. But, in many of the states, a lot of work was done during the Covid-19 pandemic because I am also heading the "Catch the Rain" campaign for Rainwater harvesting. Nearly, 48 lakh rainwater harvesting structures were constructed in the past 7-8 months," Kumar said.
"There is an opportunity also, there is a caution to be exercised when we are going for these works. We also can use this time to plan things and also to do a lot of monitoring using IT, develop those packages which can help in getting things monitored from this level. So, we can use these times for activities like this," he added.