Manmohan Singh may have had time to inspect Commonwealth Games sites, but it's perhaps too much for the citizens to expect the Prime Minister to find time to call a meeting of the National River Conservation Authority (NCRA) that he chairs.

At a time when rivers of the country are dying under enormous pressures of urbanisation and industrialisation, the NRCA has not met even once since June 16, 2003, when the last meeting had taken place under Atal Behari Vajpayee who headed the NDA government.

"No meeting of the NCRA has taken place in UPA-I and UPA-II. There is a clear disregard of river conservation which appears to have no place in the list of priorities of this government," Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People (SANDRP), told Governance Now.

Thakkar has made a press statement on August 7, 2010, to highlight the issue.

Thakkar questioned the governance of the whole NRCA. “It is not only the PM showing disregard for the NRCA, but also the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF). The steering committee of the NRCA, which is chaired by MoEF secretary, has also not met since December 20, 2007."

The terms of reference of the NRCA say that the steering committee should meet every quarter. “Seven years and two months, the PM has not conducted the meeting of NRCA and it is now 32 months that the steering committee has met. How are we going to respond to the threats to Indian rivers.”

Just how slow are we in the conservation effort? And how misgoverned?

Thakkar says the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was started in 1985, but going by a note of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), more that than half the length of the Ganga is now considered even unsafe to bathe in. That situation also prevails in most other rivers of the country.

In the case of Yamuna, the Supreme Court had ordered New Delhi’s water authority in 1992 to treat all of the sewage pumped into the river. But 18 years on, government’s cosmetic effort has just added to the crisis afflicting the Yamuna.

The NRCA is the only river conservation plan of India. The members of the body includes ministers of environment and the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Deputy Chairperson Planning Commission, 20 Chief Ministers, and some MPs.

"Is there anything worthwhile that the NRCA, which was formed on September 5, 1995, has achieved? In last 15 years, has the Authority cleaned or conserved any rivers? No example yet, which shows the sorry state of affairs.”

Thakkar pointed out that in the last meeting held in 2003 there were only two independent observers out of 51 members of the body. “Why just two independent observers,” Thakkar wonders.

The CPCB has also marked 150 polluted river stretches in India in 2010 report, which includes almost all the major rivers. But on 2nd September, 2010, the MoEF stated: “The centrally sponsored National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) presently covers 38 rivers in 178 towns spread over 20 States.”

That statement raises more question: where are plans for other rivers? Has the government no plans for 112 rivers that are in the polluted list of CPCB? Are these rivers destined to remain polluted?

Manmohan Singh and his government are not answering those questions yet.