With surface cleaning of River Ganga’s mainstream set to begin next year, government has urged public and NRIs to contribute towards the Clean Ganga Fund (CGF).
The government has until now received approximately Rs 88 crore in the form of donations in CGF and will require more money as the cleaning activity gets underway – most probably from January, 2016, according to Union Water Resources Ministry officials.
The CGF was set up over a year ago.
“We have the action plan for cleaning Ganga ready and will begin the work with entry-level activities. Cleaning the river is an ongoing process and will require funds. Hence, we urge the public to contribute towards the CGF. This will also give tax exemption to donors,” secretary in the ministry, Shashi Shekhar, said.
“Out of the total fund received until now, bigger chunk has come from private players (CSR), while donations from general public and NRIs have been less,” Shekhar noted.
He said the government has the action plan ready now and will share the details of how the works will be carried out will be put on the Ministry’s website.
“We will ask people...can every Indian contribute Rs 10 per month for the purpose? It is not a big thing. Even if 20 crore people give us Rs 10, we get Rs 200 crore. If every Indian-American contributes 1$ a month, we will get 10 million dollars. We will make such an appeal. We will make appeals on website, through print advertisements,” the official added.
{{/usCountry}}“We will ask people...can every Indian contribute Rs 10 per month for the purpose? It is not a big thing. Even if 20 crore people give us Rs 10, we get Rs 200 crore. If every Indian-American contributes 1$ a month, we will get 10 million dollars. We will make such an appeal. We will make appeals on website, through print advertisements,” the official added.
{{/usCountry}}The Government will carry out entry-level activities in four parts with surface cleaning being first of it.