by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
A Lokmat special report
Gadkari ministries get drubbing in funds
Namami Gange budget cut drastically
"Har Khet Ko Pani" gets Rs 1178 crore shocker
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Feb 9
Road Transport, Shipping, Water Resources and Namami Gange Minister Nitin Gadkari may have earned applause across party lines for his performance. But his wings have been clipped by none other than the Prime Minister Narendra Modi when it came to granting funds for Namami Gange project and Irrigation.
In 2017-18 when Gadkari took charge of the ministry from Uma Bharti, the Namami Gange project was granted Rs 700 crores. Next year i.e. 2018-19, government allocated a whopping Rs 2300 crores to the ministry so that Ganga can be cleaned before the Lok Sabha polls. However, the ministry could spend only Rs 750 crores only as most BJP ruled states were lukewarm to clear sewage projects.
Even during 2019-20 Budget presented by Piyush Goyal, Namami Gange project was granted Rs 750 crores only. Interestingly, the PM's most ambitious irrigation scheme “Har Khet Ko Pani” saw a drastic cut in funds. While Rs 2018-19, the government had granted Rs 2181 crores to the Gadkari's ministry which spent it too, this year (2019-20) only Rs 903.92 crores were given.
While the government blamed Gadkari for the slow implementation of the projects, Gadkari said that most of the sewage projects fall under the BJP ruled state governments of UP, Uttrakhand, Himachal, Jharkhand, Haryana etc. The worst performer is UP itself where only 11 of the 43 projects could be completed. The pace has not picked up even after Yogi Adityanath government came to power in early 2017. In Bihar, not a single project out of 26 could be completed though Nitish Kumar is an ally. The Arvind Kejriwal government of Delhi did not complete any of the 11 sewage projects. However, things have started moving after Gadkari personally requested him to do so.
Even as an estimated 5 crores pilgrims took a dip at the confluence of the Ganga, about 2,782 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage continues to flow into the Ganga. Of the 136 sewage projects planned across eight States to create 3,252.28 MLD sewage treatment capacity at a cost of Rs 20,623 crore, only 31 projects with a capacity of 468.19 MLD have been completed.
Of the total treatment capacity created, the share of new projects is just 0.06 MLD, while that of old projects is 468.19 MLD. About 887 MLD capacity has been created through ‘rehabilitation’ of old STPs.
Ends
