Report of the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) for arsenic mitigation
To examine the issue of Arsenic in ground water and its far reaching consequences on various aspects the ‘Parliamentary Committee on Estimates’ headed by Hon’ble Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi had chosen the topic ‘Occurrence of High Arsenic Content in Ground Water and its consequences’, for evaluation. The ‘Committee on Estimates’ after evaluating the views of different central ministries, such as, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (MoWR, RD & GR), Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Ministry of Science & Technology including CSIR, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare experts, and Arsenic infested States, gave its observations, suggestions and recommendations. As follow up action of the report of the ‘Committee on Estimates’, the committee of ’Group of Officers (GoO)’ of the Cabinet Secretariat advised to form the ‘Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG)’. The MoWR, RD & GR accordingly constituted the IMG under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary (WR, RD & GR) & Mission Director, National Water Mission with members from different concerned Central Ministries/organizations and all Arsenic affected States as the invitees. The IMG after taking cognizance of the concerns, observations, suggestions and recommendations given by the ‘Committee on Estimates’, critically analyzed the issues, status, and actions taken and initiated by different concerned Central Ministries and Arsenic affected States and also the recommendations given by the ‘Core Committee’ on ‘Mitigation and Remedy of Ground water Arsenic Menace in India’ constituted by the MoWR, RD & GR. The vision document entitled “Mitigation and Remedy of Ground water Arsenic Menace in India” prepared by the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) also formed part of the IMG’s problem review mechanism.