New Delhi: Union finance minister Arun Jaitely, fullfilling Prime Minister’s promise, unveiled the Ganga conservation Mission called “Namami Gange”. He lamented that efforts to conserve an improve the Ganga have not yielded desired results des-pite substantial amount of money being spent .
The finance minister announced that a sum of Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for conservation of ghats (river fronts) on the river Ganga at Kedarnath, Haridwar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Patna and Delhi in the current financial year.
To harness the enthusiasm of the NRI community towards the conservation of the river Ganga, Mr Jaitley announced setting up of NRI fund for Ganga which will finance special projects. Mr Jaitley also announced an ambitious inland waterways project that envisages connecting Allahabad and Haldia to cover a distance of 1,620 km, which will enable commercial navigation of at least 1,500-tonne vessels.
“The project will be completed over a period of six years at an estimated cost of Rs 4,200 crore,” Mr Jaitley said.
He also proposed to earmark Rs 3,600 crore under National Rural Drinking Water Programme for providing safe drinking water. He also proposed to establish a “National Adaptation Fund” for climate change and said an initial amount of Rs 100 crore will be transferred to the fund.
Contending that there is a great need to incr-ease the capacity for Himalayan studies, Mr Jaitley proposed setting up of National Centre for Himalayan Studies in Uttarakhand with an initial outlay of Rs100 crore.
