Two committees formed to prepare draft of Ganga Act

Tribune News Service & PTI

Dehradun, July 22

The government has formed two committees to prepare a draft of the Ganga Act, which aims at expediting implementation of the Namami Gange programme and lay down guidelines to rid the holy river of silt.

A committee under Justice (Retd) Girdhar Malviya has been entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the draft Act that should have provisions to ensure cleanliness and uninterrupted e-flow of the Ganga, an official statement said.

Malviya (79) is the chairman of the Ganga Mahasabha, which was formed by his grandfather and Banaras Hindu University founder Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya.

Legislative Department former secretary VK Bhasin, IIT-Delhi professor AK Gosain and IIT, Roorkee, professor Nayan Sharma are other members of the committee. National Mission for Clean Ganga director Sundeep will be the member secretary.

The tenure of the committee is of three months, which might be extended if needed, the statement said.

Similarly, a four-member committee has been floated under the chairmanship of Madhav Chitale, member of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), to prepare guidelines for de-silting of the river stretch between Bhimgauda (Uttarakhand) and Farakka (West Bengal).

The panel members are secretaries of the Ministries of Water Resources and Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Central Water and Power Research Station (Pune) director Mukesh Sinha.

“The committee has been asked to establish difference between de-silting and sand mining and also establish the need for de-silting for (ensuing) ecology and e-flow of the Ganga. “The tenure of the committee will be three months,” the statement said.

Both the committees have been formed in line with announcements made by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati during the NGRBA’s sixth meeting held in New Delhi on July 4.