as mother unmindfully dump plastic bags and garbage into the river said tripathi they cleaned many ghats including dhashashwamedh sheetala ghat rajendra prasad ghat and others on sunday the drive would continue with the cooperation of all 117 members of gatga he saidthe cleaning of ghats is the responsibility of varanasi nagar nigam while the ganga pollution control unit of up jal nigam looks after the river cleaning under the ganga action plan but it is known to all that both the agencies have badly failed to fulfil their responsibilities even the government reports admit that the quality of ganga water has not improved despite the investment of crores of rupees under gap initiated in 1985 however the ganga has been declared as national river and a national ganga river basin authority nrgba came into existence to clean the riverrecently the union ministry of environment and forests announced major new thrust on the ganga cleaning in march last the government has decided to provide a major impetus to the programmes for the cleaning of the ganga under the mission clean ganga initiativeaccording to reports a fund of rs 500 crore has been allocated for the ngrba for the financial year 201011 besides in the first phase projects worth rs 139411 crore have been cleared by the empowered steering committee esc of the ngrba these include projects in uttar pradesh rs 800 crore bihar rs 440 crore west bengal rs 105 crore and uttarakhand rs 45 crore the fund would be spent on the development of sewer network sewage treatment plants and sewage pumping stations electric crematoria community toilets development of river fronts resuscitation of canals and public campaigns in the country it may be mentioned here that under the mission clean ganga no untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluents will flow into the river by year 2020 a project worth rs 49690 crore for varanasi has been approved by the expenditure finance committee efcthe ganga should be saved at any coast it is not the responsibility of the government alone but all citizens are equally responsible to save the holy river from pollution said the cabmen and guides in one voice