NEW DELHI: The response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for contributions to the Clean Ganga Fund is gushing from overseas. PM Modi had called out to NRIs and PIOs for contributing to the Clean Ganga Fund at his Madison Square Garden speech during his US visit in September. Nearly a month later, hundreds of NRIs have contacted the NDA government. They want to be part of the initiative. The National Mission on Clean Ganga (NMCG), the authority heading the herculean task of cleaning the revered river, is receiving hundreds of emails everyday from Indians living abroad showing keen interest in donating huge amounts for the Clean Ganga Fund and for adopting the Ghats in Varanasi.
NRIs were an important support group for Narendra Modi in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The NDA government is tapping them for its ambitious Namami Ganga Campaign. Modi had launched the Clean Ganga Fund during his US visit and the response has been overwhelming. The people showing interest in the campaign include a dozen famous personalities and industrialists settled abroad. Some people are also offering technology and technical know-how to clean the river. Many foreign universities having Indian faculty have expressed interest in collaborating with the Indian government. Majority of NRIs have expressed interest in adopting Ghats along the Ganga in Varanasi.
“We have received hundreds of e-mails from NRIs across the world who want to donate for Ganga Campaign. They also want to be part of the overall campaign by either adopting the Ganga ghats or bring technology to clean the sacred river. “We would consider all proposals but select the technology being offered carefully,” said a senior water ministry official. According to the estimates from the Committee of Secretaries set up by the NDA government to prepare a roadmap for Ganga cleaning, over `50,000 crores will be needed for laying a sewerage network and treatment plants if the government gives 100 percent funding. The amount might come down with private funding or through the Public-private Partneship (PPP) model. Apart from taking ahead the participation of those who want to adopt the ghats, the government is now planning to launch a Ganga Mutual Fund scheme. It’s a crowd-funding programme that would encourage the participation of the common people who want to connect with the Ganga-cleaning campaign. “It’s not that government of India doesn’t have the money for cleaning the Ganga. PM Modi wanted to make it a public-driven campaign with mass participation. That’s what is happening right now. A group of Universities in Canada is interested in coming to India and bring funds to launch the research on the river,” the official added.
A dedicated account for monetary contributions under the Namami Ganga has been created. The funding will soon take off with the registration of the Ganga Trust which has secretaries of environment, water, overseas Indian affairs and department of economic affairs as members along with other eminent persons. The trust will look after the donations and overseas-funding under the Clean Ganga Fund. The government is also planning to approach celebrities to popularise the cause of cleaning Ganga. According to the sources, a big name may soon become the brand ambassador for the awareness campaign. According to the government, the total expenditure so far, incurred on the conservation of river Ganga under the Ganga Action Plan Phase- I & II is `986.34 crore as on March, 2014. A parliamentary standing committee had put the cost at `40,000 crore. The money has gone down the drain with the river getting more polluted during the last two decades mainly due to the non-implementation and poor monitoring. Ganga-cleaning has got a push under the Modi government with the creation of a new ministry and the allocation of `2000 crore in the Budget. However, nothing concrete seems to have moved on the ground.