Govt declares Chacha Chaudhary mascot for Namami Gange project

New Delhi: In a move aimed at bringing behavioural changes amongst children towards Ganga and other rivers, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has declared famous Indian comic book character Chacha Chaudhary as the mascot of the government's flagship programme

'Namami Gange'.

The decision in this regard has been taken an executive committee meeting of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)

on Friday.

As per the statement of Jal Shakti Ministry, the NMCG has tied up with Diamond Toons to develop and distribute comics, e-comics and animated videos featuring the

cartoon character.

The total estimated budget for the project is Rs 2.26 crore and the comics will initially be launched in Hindi, English and Bengali languages, the ministry

said.

The ministry said that youth are the "impellers of change", prompting the NMCG to focus on them in its outreach and public communications efforts. Namami Gange was launched as a flagship programme of the Union government for effective abatement of pollution and conservation

and rejuvenation of the National River Ganga.

"NMCG has always been into community engagement with special focus on youth and children. This association will be one more step towards it," said Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, director-general of NMCG. During the meeting, Dipak Kumar Singh, who is principal secretary of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Department, Bihar government, presented a proposal for conserving and sustainably managing Gangetic floodplain wetlands

in Bihar.

Commenting on the proposal, Singh said, "The major components of the project would be wetland inventory and assessment, wetland management planning, wetland's monitoring, and capacity development and outreach. This will be a 100 per cent centrally funded project with an estimated cost of Rs. 2.505 crore." "The proposal aims at creating a knowledge base and capacities for effective management of floodplain wetlands in the 12 Ganga districts in Bihar to ensure sustained provision of wetlands ecosystem services and securing biodiversity habitats," the ministry said.