In Conversation: Puskal Upadhyay and Rajiv Ranjan Mishra

STORIZENINTERVIEW

- Megha Parmar

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, an Indian Administrative Officer of the 1987 batch, virtually changed the discourse on Ganga rejuvenation and its long-term sustenance during his two separate stints at the National Mission for Clean Ganga, first as a Mission Director and then as the Director-General.

Puskal Upadhyay is one of the pioneers of the government's clean-Ganga initiative. A civil engineer-turned-civil servant, he's also a finance professional. He had been associated with the clean-Ganga initiative even before Namami Gange was launched and has played a critical role in developing the building blocks of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) during its formative years as Director (Finance). He is currently the Financial Advisor in New Delhi Municipal Council.

In 2014, when Prime Minister promised to clean the mighty Ganga river. This was not the first attempt, but unfortunately, those attempts failed somehow. What was that one innovative measure the present Government has taken?

Namami Gange programme launched by the government is definitely not the first attempt to clean Ganga but the thinking and approach have been new. Unlike all its predecessors this has been able to achieve significantly by completely remapping the scope, allocating the required resources, and changing the working modalities. One significant innovative measure of the programme is the Hybrid Annuity Model-based STPS which ensure timely creation of capacity and uninterrupted operations while bringing in much-needed accountability.

How has your journey been with the Clean Ganga project? Can you share it in detail with our readers?

Our journey with the Clean Ganga project, i.e. Namami Gange has been not only an interesting and happening one but also of an enlightening nature through which we have almost