Rejuvenation of small rivers under NREGS highlight of PM meet today

Sources said the meeting’s agenda, prepared by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) which implements the Government’s Namami Gange programme, has been circulated to the Union ministries and the five states involved.

The NMCG has proposed making urban river management plans (URMPs) and river sensitive master planning mandatory for river cities as one of the agenda items for the meeting, sources said.

Some of the key small rivers that are being rejuvenated include Gomti, Sai, Mandakini and Varuna in UP, according to the meeting’s agenda. It also provides a break-up of the rejuvenation work done on rivers in UP through which a bulk of the Ganga flows — about 1,100 km of 2,525 km.

Work on six rivers was undertaken in the state under MGNREGA during 2018-19, 19 in 2019-20, six in 2020-21 and 14 in 2021-22. Work on the Gomti river was taken up across four districts in UP — Pilibhit, Sitapur, Lucknow and Shahjahanpur — during the last four financial years (2018-19 to 2022-23).

Speaking to The Indian Express, Pulkit Khare, who was the District Magistrate of Pilibhit where rejuvenation of the Gomti was undertaken earlier this year, said, “River Gomati originates in the district of Pilibhit and traverses about 47 km before entering Shahjahanpur. The continuity of the stream of the river was broken, so we decided to broaden and deepen the river for which we used funds available in the MGNREGS.”

Khare said the purpose of the exercise was not only to rejuvenate the river channel that was blocked by silt but also to connect people to the programme.

Highlighting work done for the rejuvenation of small rivers in UP, the agenda for Friday’s meeting states: “Two small rivers in each district have been identified to implement these measures. This item has also been included as priority under MGNREGA… So far work on 75 rivers along 3,149 Kms (cumulative) in 71 districts have been taken up with a cost of Rs. 139.55 Cr under MGNREGA.”

Pointing out that the country has 53 metropolitan cities, of which 42 are river cities, sources said state governments have to “integrate river sensitive thinking” in existing and upcoming master plans of cities located along rivers.

The states and the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs will have to ensure the preparation of URMPs for all metropolitan river cities, sources said, adding that the idea of river cities was discussed in the last meeting held three years ago in Kanpur.

The Council will also take stock of various projects, including Project Dolphin, being implemented under the Namami Gange programme.