Expenditure of the funds under Communication and Public Outreach head, which includes media & publicity under Namami Gange Programme is Rs.126 crore.

The incidents of “unclaimed/ unidentified, burnt or partially burnt dead bodies, found floating in river or on grounds, in the shallow depth, on the banks of the river Ganga”, were reported form certain districts in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in the media. National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) sought from concerned State Governments, a report on the dead bodies found floating and action taken or contemplated for ensuring proper handling, management and disposal of dead bodies by the State authorities for ensuring the protection of the river Ganga.

Advisories were also issued by Director General, NMCG addressed to Chief Secretaries of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and all District Ganga Committees followed by advisories from Secretary, DoWR, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti to Chief Secretaries of all States/Administrators of all UTs for ensuring proper handling, management and disposal of dead bodies by the State authorities following Covid-19 protocol and ensuring the protection of the river Ganga.

The information regarding number of COVID-19 related dead bodies estimated to have been dumped in the river Ganga is not available.

All the actions taken has led to coordinated action at State level towards cremation of dead bodies as per Government of India protocols, providing necessary financial assistance to deserving families for cremation of dead bodies, regular patrolling of river channel and river banks, as well as, necessary community awareness drives to water taken raise awareness among the river-side communities on do’s/ don’ts for the use of river water to prevent the spread of infection in current scenario of Covid-19 surge.

 Under the Namami Gange Programme, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is carrying out water quality assessment of the River Ganga at 97 locations in 5 main stem States through the respective State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs).

 

As per CPCB data for 2021, the observed water quality of river Ganga indicates that Dissolved Oxygen (DO), which is an indicator of river health has been found to be within acceptable limits of notified primary bathing water quality criteria and is satisfactory to support the ecosystem of the river for almost the entire stretch of the river Ganga. None of the Ganga Stretches are in priority category I to IV and only two stretches are in Category V with Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) ranging between 3-6 mg/l as per CPCB categorization of polluted stretch. As a result of multi sectoral interventions, as per comparison of median data of water quality parameters viz., DO, BOD and FC of year 2015 and 2021; DO (Median) has improved at 33 locations; BOD at 41 locations and FC at 23 locations, respectively.

Cleaning of river Ganga is a continuous process and National Mission for Clean Ganga is implementing various projects for conservation and rejuvenation of river Ganga and its tributaries.

This Information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Bishweswar Tudu in a written  reply in Rajya Sabha today. 

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BY/AS

(Release ID: 1796191)