Inter-Ministerial Group on Ganga River Management

Inter-Ministerial Group on Ganga River Management
The Government has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Group vide Office Memorandum dated 15th June, 2012 of Ministry of Environment & Forests. The terms of reference of the Inter-Ministerial Group are as follows:-

i. To facilitate cooperation with government agencies for early completion of the study being conducted by the consortium of IITs for preparing a Ganga River Basin Management Plan.

ii. Pending finalization of the Ganga River Basin Management Plan, to consider and make recommendations on the following short-term measures in the upper reaches of the river Ganga on the basis of available reports, within three months.

 To suggest environmental flow requirement that could be prescribed for various stretches of Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and other tributaries of river Ganga, taking into account suggestions in the reports prepared by the IIT Roorkee, Wild Life Institute of India and any other available report on the subject that the group wishes to consider.

 To examine how best to make the suggested flows applicable to projects currently in operation, taking into account, inter alia, its impact on tariff.

 To make a review of the environmental impacts of projects that are proposed on Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and other tributaries of river Ganga and recommend necessary remedial action.

The Inter-Ministerial group has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Shri B. K. Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission, with the following members:-

i. Shri J. M. Mauskar, former Special Secretary, MoEF and nominee representative of the Ministry of Environment & Forests.

ii. Representative of the Ministry of Power

iii. Representative of Ministry of Water Resources

iv. Representative of Central Electricity Authority

v. Representative of Central Water Commission

vi. Representative of Wild Life Institute of India

vii. Representative of IIT Roorkee

viii. Representative of Government of Uttarakhand

ix. Chairperson/Member Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board

x. Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra, Expert Member, NGRBA

xi. Shri Rajendra Singh, Expert Member, NGRBA

xii. Ms. Sunita Narain, Expert Member, NGRBA

xiii. Mission Director, National Mission Clean Ganga, Ministry of Environment & Forests – Member Convener.

In the first meeting held on 26th July, 2012, the reports of AHEC, IIT Roorkee on ‘Assessment of Cumulative Impact of Hydropower Projects in Alaknanda and Bhagirathi Basins’ were discussed. The IMG also considered a presentation made by coordinator, IIT consortium which is preparing Ganga Basin Management Plan.The Committee has so far met 4 times and its term has been extended till 31st January, 2013 with enlarged terms of reference for taking into account the representations made by various people and to suggest innovative technologies for pollution control.

Government has commissioned a consortium of seven IITs for preparation of the Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP) through signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between the Ministry and the IITs consortium on 06.07.2010. The plan would take into consideration the requirements of water and energy in the Ganga Basin, to accommodate increase population, urbanization, industrialization and agriculture while ensuring the fundamental aspects of conservation of river system. The IITs consortium has so far submitted 23 reports under the GRBMP.

The above information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests, Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan to the Parliament.

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(Release ID :90069)