River pollution hits fishermen as 'Namami Gange' fails to yield fruitful results in state

KOLKATA: Namami Gange, an ambitious project launched by the Narendra Modi government way back in 2015 has reportedly failed to yield any fruitful results in Bengal as thousands of fishermen along the banks of Bhagirathi or Hooghly in various districts are badly hit by pollution of the river.

Aquatic plants and animals are worst hit by the pollution of the river. Fishermen in Malda and Murshidabad districts alleged that many fishes which were earlier found in the river in large numbers are now missing. Hilsa has also disappeared due to the rise in the pollution level of the water.

Fishermen who had cultivated much hope after the launch of the project had been forced to opt other professions to earn their livelihood.

Earlier they had a good business by catching the fishes from the river but the situation gradually worsened due to ever increasing pollution level in the river water.

Chandana Sarkar, MLA from Baishnabnagar alleged that the Namami Gange project has brought no results.

The pollution level has gone from bad to worse. The project now exists only on paper here in this part of the state, Sarkar added.

Namami Gange is an integrated conservation and rejuvenation programme initiated by the Central government in June 2014.

Cleaning the Ganga and rejuvenating it was one of the foremost projects of the Modi government. In the seven years since then, the data available with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) show that out of 341 projects, 147 (or 43 per cent) are completed. A majority of projects are related to sewage infrastructure and 61 out of 157 sewage projects (39 per cent) have been completed so far.

The Modi government had launched the programme in 2015 with a total budgetary outlay of Rs 20,000 crore for the period between 2014-15 and 31 December 2020.