The Environment Ministry has sanctioned 43 projects worth over Rs 2,400 crore for four states to make river Ganga pollution free and to conserve it under the Mission Clean Ganga project.

“The projects sanctioned in 2009-10 and 2010-11 are for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttarakhand for development of sewer networks, sewage treatment plans and sewage pumping stations, electric crematoria, community toilets, development of river fronts, etc.,” the Ministry said in a release in New Delhi on Monday.

Projects worth Rs 1,314 crore have been sanctioned for Uttar Pradesh, worth Rs 656 crore for West Bengal, Rs 442 crore for Bihar and Rs 64 crore for Uttarakhand, the ministry said.

“For three years, operation and maintenance costs will be shared between the Centre and the states in the ratio of 70:30 with an option to extend the sharing for another two years,” it said.

So far, pollution abatement projects of Rs 2,476 crore have been sanctioned under the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).

NGRBA was set up by the Government in February 2009 as an empowered planning, financing, monitoring and coordinating authority for the Ganga river, to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the national river.

Two meetings of the Authority have been held so far.

“The Authority has taken several measures to improve the implementation of the programme which include constitution of State River Conservation Authorities, independent appraisal of project reports, third party inspection, tripartite memorandum of agreements, etc.,” the Ministry said.

A comprehensive River Basin Environmental Management Plan for the Ganga is being prepared by a consortium of seven IITs and will be ready by December 2011, it said.

Envn min withdraws forest habitat guidelines after complaints

The Environment Min has withdrew the revised guidelines for determination of critical wildlife habitats issued by it last month, considering complaints by civil society members that it violates the traditional rights of tribal people.

The Ministry said members of some civil society organisations had made representations alleging that the guidelines were in violation of the Forest Rights Act, which recognises the traditional rights of tribals and other forest dwellers.

The complaint stated that “the consequent process of the relocation of people from such areas required to be fine tuned to make it perfectly compliant to the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.”

On 4th March, the Ministry had organised a meeting with officers of the Tribal Affairs Ministry, state governments and representatives of scientific and civil society organisations to discuss the revised guidelines.

“Taking a note of their concerns, the Ministry has decided to withdraw the guidelines issued on February 7, 2011 and has initiated the process for having new guidelines in place,” the Ministry said.