National Ganga River Basin Authority
National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) is a financing, planning, implementing, monitoring and coordinating authority for the Ganges River, functioning under the water resource ministry of India. The mission of the organization is to safeguard the drainage basin which feeds water into the Ganges by protecting it from pollution or overuse.It is transferred from Ministry of Environments to Min. of Water resources.
Establishment
It was established by the Central Government of India, on 20 February 2009 under Section 3(3) of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, which also declared Ganges as the "National River" of India.[1]
Overview
The Prime Minister the chair of the Authority. Other members include the cabinet ministers who include the Ganges among their direct concerns and the chief ministers of states through which the Ganges River flows. The Chief Ministers as members are not from all the 11 states through which Ganges flow but only from 5 of the 11 states viz. Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The first meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority was held on 5 October 2009.[2]
In the 2010 Union budget of India, the allocation for National Ganga River Basin Authority doubled to 
500 crore.
Members of the NGRBA
There are total of 24 members of the NGRBA. 15 out of 24 come from the government sectors whereas the remaining 9 come from the NGO sector.
Government members of the Committee
Members belonging to the government sector are as follows:
- Prime Minister of India, chair
- Minister of Environment and Forests (Union Minister)
- Minister of Finance
- Minister of Urban Development
- Minister of Water Resources
- Minister of Power
- Minister of Sciences and Technology
- Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission
- Chief Minister of Uttarakhand
- Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
- Chief Minister of Bihar
- Chief Minister of Jharkhand
- Chief Minister of West Bengal
- Ministry Of Environment and Forests (state minister)
- Ministry Of Environment and Forests, secretary
Expert members of the committee
Members belonging to the NGO sector are as follows:[3]
- Veer Bhadra Mishra, President, Sankat Mochan Foundation, Varanasi.
- Rajendra Singh, Chairman, Tarun Bharat Sangh, Jaipur.
- Smt. Rama Rauta, Convener, Save Ganga Movement & President, National Women's Organization, Pune.
- Sunita Narain, Director, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi.
- Prof. B.D. Tripathi, Coordinator, Center for Environmental Science & Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
- Dr. Ravi Chopra, Director, People's Science Institute, Dehradun.
- Dr. R.K. Sinha, Department of Zoology, Patna University.
- Prof. R.H. Siddiqi, Former Professor, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.
- Prof. K.J. Nath,Former Director, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata
References
- ↑ NGRBA Ministry of Environment, Govt. of India.
- ↑ http://cpcb.nic.in/ngrba/about.html p.1.
- ↑ p.2. Composition of the Authority Ministry of Environment