Save-Ganga panel on lines of NHRC soon

NEW DELHI: Concerned about the inability of the National Ganga River Basin Authority’s limited control over how states manage the river stretches in their domain, the Centre is preparing a law that will set up a National Ganga Basin Authority along the lines of the National Commission for Women and the National Human Rights Commission.

The move by the central government comes with concerns within the UPA that the agitation by Hindu seers for an ‘aviral’ Ganga could hit a higher pitch ahead of the Mahakumbh in Allahabad in January. Consequently, environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan has asked her officials to draft a bill that would enable setting up a commission. The government intends to table the bill in the monsoon session of Parliament. The commission, the government proposes, will have powers to help override the difficulties the existing authority has been facing in implementing actions across the eight states that the river passes through.

Early discussions about the commission, source said, led to a proposed structure with non-official experts as well as state representatives on board besides central government actors.