National River Conservation Plan (NRCP)

Ganga Action Plan (GAP) Phase-I was started in 1985 as a 100 per cent centrally funded Scheme. The main objective of GAP was to improve the water quality of Ganga to acceptable standards by preventing the pollution load reaching the river. Under GAP Phase-I pollution abatement works were taken up in 21 class-I towns in UP, Bihar and West Bengal. This Phase has been declared complete on 31st March 2000 at a cost of Rs 451.70 crore.

GAP Phase-I was extended to GAP Phase-II approved in stages from 1993 to 1996, which covered the river Ganga and its major tributaries viz., Yamuna, Gomati and Damodar. This action plan covers pollution abatement works in 95 towns along the polluted stretches of four rivers spread over seven States. The total approved cost of this action plan is Rs 1498.86 crore which was approved on 50:50 cost sharing basis between the Centre and the State Governments.

Later, however, it was felt that the river conservation activity needed to be extended to other rivers of the country also. Accordingly, the existing Scheme was merged into a National River Conservation Plan.

National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) was approved for Rs 772.08 crore in 1995 on 50:50 cost sharing basis between the Centre and the State Government. The then Ganga Project Directorate was converted into National River Conservation Directorate for servicing the National River Conservation Authority and the Steering Committee.

The current programmes covered under NRCP include works in 172 towns along polluted stretches of various rivers spread over 20 states. To give a fresh impetus to pollution abatement of River Ganga and its tributaries, a major initiative under the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has been started in 2010.

Objectives

The objective of National River Conservation Plan being to improve the water quality of the major rivers which are the major fresh water source in the country through the implementation of pollution abatement Schemes. It covered pollution abatement works in 46 towns along the polluted stretches of 18 rivers spread over 10 States. The Ganga Action Plan Phase-II was merged with NRCP in December 1996. Seven additional towns of Tamil Nadu were approved in January 2001 at a cost of Rs 575.30 crore on this funding pattern.

In a meeting of the National River Conservation Authority held in March, 2001 under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister of India, it was decided to adopt an integrated approach for the river cleaning programmes; and that all future works would be shared on a 70:30 basis between the Centre and the State Governments. Of the State share, the share of public shall be minimum of 10% of the total costs.

Activities Covered

The activities under NRCP include the following:

• Interception and Diversion works to capture the raw sewage flowing into the river through open drains and divert them for treatment
• Sewage Treatment Plants for treating the diverted sewage
• Low Cost Sanitation works to prevent open defecation on riverbanks
• Electric Crematoria and Improved Wood Crematoria to conserve the use of wood and help in ensuring proper cremation of bodies brought to the burning ghats
• River Front Development works such as improvement of bathing ghats
• Public awareness and public participation
• HRD, capacity building, training and research in the area of River Conservation
• Other miscellaneous works depend upon location specific conditions including the interface with human population

Restructuring Of Environment Schemes

Pursuant to the recommendations of the B.K. Chaturvedi Report (September 2011) on CSS, MoEF has rationalised the eight schemes existing in the Eleventh Five Year Plan to five in the Twelfth Five Year Plan by suitable merger/clubbing as shown in the figure given below:

The total number of thematic schemes in the Twelfth Plan has been reduced to 18 comprising of 5 CSS and 13 CS schemes, including one on Climate Change which has been approved by the Planning Commission. Amongst sub-schemes, the schemes of Industrial Pollution abatement through preventive strategies and Clean Technologies have been merged into a single scheme under the Pollution Abatement Scheme.

Similarly, the schemes of National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP) and Wetlands have been merged into a single scheme, namely, National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems under the thematic scheme of Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems. The scheme of Taj Protection has also been clubbed under this scheme. Under the thematic scheme of International Cooperation Activities, a new sub-scheme on Desertification Cell has been proposed. The Civil Construction Unit scheme is a non-Plan scheme and has been shown to account for Plan expenditure on construction of new building of MoEF, which is likely to be completed in 2012–13.

Source: Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017) Faster, More Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

Green India Mission

The Government of India has taken initiatives by formulating National Mission for a Green India (GIM) as one of the 8 missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The mission has been approved by the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change with a proposed cost of Rs 46000 crore over 10 years starting from 2012‒13.

The GIM has been conceived as a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral and multi-departmental mission, recognising that climate change phenomena will seriously affect and alter the distribution, type and quality of natural resources of the country and the associated livelihoods of the people.

GIM puts the ‘greening’ in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation and is meant to enhance ecosystem services like carbon sequestration and storage (in forests and other ecosystems), hydrological services and biodiversity; along with provisioning services like fuel, fodder, small timber through agro and farm forestry, and NTFPs.

During the Twelfth Five Year Plan, provisions have been kept for the GIM for increasing forest and tree cover on 2.5 mha area (non forest through agro/social/farm forestry), improving quality of forest cover on another 2.5 mha area, improving ecosystems services, and increasing forest based livelihood income and enhanced annual CO2 sequestration.