Ganga Action plan work to begin in Feb end

Kolkata, Feb 6(UNI) The work of the Ganga Action Plan will start soon in Bengal as the river water has been badly polluted because of waste disposal by the industries, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here today.

Speaking at the Fifth Environment Excellence Award ceremony, organised by ICC and West Pollution Control Board, the Chief Minister said, ''The cleaning work will start from February end.'' The Ministry of Environment and Forests initiated the Ganga Action Plan to clean critical areas of the Ganga in its course from Hardwar onwards to make it fit for bathing. Since 1980, about Rs 1,000 crore has been spent on GAP without any worthwhile improvement in the quality of water.

Experts said that lakhs of people bathe in the Ganges. The normal biological oxygen (BOD) level in the Ganga is five; but ideally, it should not exceed three.

The BOD level in the Ganga now stands at six, making it unfit not only for drinking but even bathing. Ganga receives pollutant effluents to the tune of about 29 MLD (million litres daily).

According to a World Bank report, pollution levels in the holy river are the biggest contributor to water-borne diseases among the population residing close.

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament report of 2006 had said that the work of GAP-I that was to be finished in 1990 was yet to be completed and the deadline has been extended from 2001 to 2008.

In the second phase of the GAP, 270 projects were sanctioned at a cost of Rs 615 crore. Only 111 projects (less than 50 per cent) have been completed. West Bengal has completed only 56 projects out of its allocated share of 170.

The figures submitted by the Union Government to the Supreme Court indicated that barring a few exceptions, the pollution level has either remained the same or has increased since the first phase of the GAP was initiated.

UNI