Summary:
Union minister Nitin Gadkari last year extended the deadline to March 2020.SMF, a Varanasi-based NGO, has been monitoring the quality of Ganga water since the launch of the Ganga Action Plan by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986. Working as a watchdog for the cause of the Ganga, SMF has established its own laboratory to analyse the samples of Ganga water on a regular basis.Data collected by SMF’s Ganga Laboratory at Tulsi Ghat here has painted a gloomy picture of the Ganga’s health due to high bacterial pollution. VARANASI: The Rs 20,000-crore “Namami Gange” project to “conserve, clean and rejuvenate” the Ganga river seems to have failed to achieve its target. Coliform organisms should be 50MPN (most probable number)/100ml or less in drinking water and 500MPN/100ml in outdoor bathing water, while BOD should be less than 3mg/l. High presence of coliform bacteria in Ganga water is alarming for human health,” said SMF president and IIT-BHU professor V N Mishra, who is also the mahant of the famous Sankat Mochan temple.“Faecal coliform is present in the gut and faeces of warmblooded animals..