Soon Ganga pollution will be treated as a criminal offense. In the effort to abate pollution, ministry of water resource, river development and Ganga rejuvenation is working on a law that will puni
Prime minister Narendra Modi completes his one year in office on Monday. Governance Now has reviewed some of his key promises and initiatives taken in one year and what needs to be done in near fut
US President Barack Obama today said both Al Qaeda and ISIS pose a direct threat to the US and "even without ISIL, instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world - in the Mid
Water is essential for sustaining life and our ecosystem as a whole and India is by far the largest and fastest growing consumer of ground water in the world. In our country, ground water is a comm
On a dry winter morning in December 2012, while crossing the bridge over what seemed like narrow waterway in an eastern UP town, I noticed a mountain of garbage in the stream. This shrunken, pollut
How NHAI is meeting the enormous challenge of digging long tunnels in mountains to bring Kashmir closer to the rest of India. The Banihal-Qazigund and Chenani-Nashri tunnels are part of an ambiti
Soon, Indias citizens will be able to order “pure” Ganga water [Ganga jal] through an e-commerce platform, said communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The government has planned to promote navigation in rivers, including the mighty Ganga. Union minister for road transport, highways and shipping
There are 302 polluted river stretches along 275 rivers in the country. The pollution assessment is based on the bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD) levels which are the key indicators of pollution, M
“The river [Ganga] is no ordinary image in which the divine has come to dwell. She is celestial-unmediated and immediate. Whatever is holy, whatever is merciful, whatever is utterly auspiciou
Many parts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are suffering from floods as river Ganga and its tributaries are flowing above the danger mark. So far, at least 40 people are reportedly dead
We are a family of 21 people and we have been residing on this bund for two years now. There is no electricity, no proper roof and no safety. I am worried for my grandchildren. I want to see a roof
The government aims to profit from the longest river of the country by using it as a water highway. It has expressed interest in dredging lengthy stretches of the Ganga, building barrages and thus
The union government in May partnered with UNDP India and launched Namami Gan
Arsenic took my brother’s life. He had developed a wound on his foot from where blood and pus used to ooze out all the time. Despite that, he fought for all of us and tried his best to bring
Union minister Uma Bharti on Friday said that the centre is discussing the issue of bringing water into concurrent list with states. To place water in the concurrent list is a propos
The 2,500 km long river Ganga is relatively clean in some parts. Union minister Vijay Goel informed the Lok Sabha that water quality monitoring of river Ganga is being carried out by
What if there was a law for optimum use of water, conservation of rivers and underground water? It would have battled the water crisis in different regions of the country.
When the truth was a few steps away from Modi’s gaze In November 2014, prime minister Narendra Modi made his first visit to his constituency Varanasi and laun
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified a total of 764 Grossly Polluting Industries (industry discharging more than pollution load of Biochemical Oxygen Deman
The river Ganga that the people in the plains know is very ill. It is odious. Well, what they perhaps don’t realise is that the river is not like that when she begins her journey from the Gan
The Bihar government wants activist Anna Hazare to lead a mass movement on Ganga for them. Last year, Bihar was one of the major victims of floods in the Gangetic plains. Almo
The Bihar government wants activist Anna Hazare to lead a mass movement on Ganga for them. Last year, Bihar was one of the major victims of floods in the Gangetic plains. Alm
Shortly after prime minister Narendra Modi vowed to save the Narmada ri
Restoring life to the Ganga is not rocket science, said an exhaustive report on the river Ganga by The Third Pole. It added “what it needs is political
Ganga ke jal mein apni ek taang par khada hai yeh shehar apni duusri taang se bilkul bekhabar – Hindi critic an
It’s said that to see as much of life as India can show, all one needs to do is visit Varanasi. The city, often called India’s cultural capital, has recorded continuous settleme
‘Connecting People to Nature’, is the theme for this year’s World Environment Day that falls on June 5, every year. The theme implores us to go outdoors and experience nature &n
In the past three months projects worth Rs 4,100 crore have received the green signal as part of the effort to clean the Ganga. But, will it yield the desired result?
The water resources ministry is working on a national river Ganga bill to protect the river from pollution and degeneration. Addressing the media on Monday, union minister for water resources, rive
Nitin Gadkari has replaced Uma Bharti after over three years of almost no visible work in the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, as promised by prime minister Na
Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu has said that linking of rivers will help farmers to grow more crops and increase their earnings. He said governments have been considering inter-linking of rivers f
In a conversation with Governance Now, UP Singh explains why the holy river cannot be cleansed in one stroke or by a single scheme. He also talks about how Ganga is different from other rivers acro
If water had memory, the Ganga would tell a story that begins in pure joy in the Himalayas and ends in the tragedy of pollution. It would remind us of its simple and holy beginnings in the hills,
Everyone knows that the Ganga is heavily polluted. Along the 2,525 km of the river, there are just 57 monitoring stations to assess water quality. Few as they are, they tell a horrific story if one
No construction can be carried out up to 100 metres from the Ganga river, parliament was informed on Thursday. Union minister Dr Satya Pal Singh said that a model Draft Bill for Floo
Twenty-six-year-old Surender is a ferryman in Varanasi. Surender and his family own three boats and their livelihood is dependent on taking tourists on a joyride on the Ganga. Recalling th
Like other people-related disputes, inter-state river disputes in India are congenital. People live in peace for ages till the hegemonic state etches a border through them, dividing them up and div
A shocking sight greets the visitor in Rishikesh: At the main ghat, the Ganga spans no more than 10 feet with less than a foot in depth. A larger stream, though, flows on the other side, in full
Long-time residents of Varanasi say that among their fondest memories is of sitting on the ghats and watching dolphins frolick in the Ganga. These days though, no one sees them. “Some 25-30 y
A new study titled, ‘Quantitative analysis of Microplastics along River Ganga’ by Toxics Link has found heavy concentration of microplastics in the Ganga. All samples col
Prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off the world’s longest river cruise, MV Ganga Vilas, and inaugurated the Tent City at Varanasi via video conferencing. He also inaugurated and
Fire on the Ganges: Life among the Dead in Banaras By Radhika Iyengar 4th Estate / HarperCollins, 348 pages, 599
