Initiatives in Namami Gange for Arth Gange and Peoples' Participation

In G. Asok Kumar’s tenure as Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) since 1 January 2022, there has been an enhanced focus in making Namami Gange Program sustainable, by pitching it as peoples’ movement, as envisioned by Hon’ble Prime Minister. Hon'ble PM in the 1st meeting of the National Ganga Council on 14 December, 2019 at Kanpur espoused the concept of "Arth Ganga" to make the "river-people connect" through an economic bridge. In March 2022, the  6 verticals of Arth-Ganga were formalised. They are  (1) Zero Budget Natural Farming  (2) Reuse and Monetisation of Treated water and sludge from STPs (3) promotion of livelihood opportunities (4) Promotion of Cultural heritage and tourism (5) People’s participation (6) building up of institutions and developing their capacities. All these were to be achieved with active co-operation and participation of other Ministries/ Departments concerned, in the true "Whole of Government" approach advocated by the Modi Government.  

On 6th April 2022, Asok Kumar started the concept of DGC forum meetings- a mandated monthly fixed meetings of District Ganga Committees formed earlier. 139 DGCs had not held meetings, till this was launched along with a portal -Ganga District Performance Monitoring System (GDPMS). From ZERO at the start of April 2022, so far till 15 February 2024,  DGCs have held 2594 meetings and their  MoM (Minutes of Meetings) uploaded to GDPMS. Meetings held under District Magistrates or the heads of the administration of districts on the banks of river Ganga, have  3 major agenda to deliberate.- “National or NMCG agenda,  local agenda and seasonal agenda,. This decentralized involvement of local administration and stakeholders have attracted the attention of National Green Tribunal, which has started direct dialogues with DGCs, who have been asked to prepare District Ganga Plans etc and oversee its implementation. This effort of Asok Kumar ensures sustenance and quality of the efforts done by Namami Gange to clean and rejuvenate River Ganga and its tributaries by actively involving local stakeholders and ensuring decentralized monitoring. Along with this, the concept of Urban River Management Plans (URMPs) to bring river management as a serious element of urban planning has also started. 

River Cities Alliance (RCA), which was started on 25 November 2021, with 20 cities on the basin of River Ganga has now gown to an organization with 142+ cities on the banks of various Indian rivers. Expanding its scope and reach further, Global River Cities Alliance (GRCA) was launched under the leadership of NMCG at the CoP 28 at Dubai with 11 countries and International Funding agencies joining together.....

Sahi–fasal-- Agriculture thru the prism of water

Sahi-Fasal  campaign, launched by National Water Mission  is  to nudge farmers to go for the right crops which are not water intensive, suited to the agro-climatic conditions, meets the food security of the country and nutrition standards, are remunerative to the farmers and uses water efficiently. This campaign encourages farmers to diversify to the crops which give more net- income per drop. If the crop cannot be changed, then irrigation practices be changed to improve the water use efficiency and reduce the water foot print. It looks at Agriculture through the prism of water usage and water use efficiency for better Demand side management. Crucial for India’s water security as over 85% of water usage in India is in agriculture sector...

Shubrata- Construction of 1.4 lakh+ toilets in 2002

“Shubrata” or Cleanliness in Telugu was a very successful campaign with people’s participation to construct over 1.2 Lakh pucca Individual Sanitary Latrines (ISLs) in Nizamabad district, Telangana state (then Andhra Pradesh state), India in a period of just SIX MONTHS -from June to December, 2002! By the time the drive was over, in one year over 1.4 lakh pucca toilets were competed. The toilets built in 1000 schools in Jan-June 2002 was its harbinger.     “Shubrata” was much ahead of its time, many years ahead of the Swatch Bharat Mission (2014-2019) or even the Atal Nirmal Gram Yojana (2003) to push for permanent toilets in the rural areas of the country. A true people’s movement...

Asok Sagar, Nizamabad/ Asok Nagar, Kadapa

To have a place named after an officer is a very rare event. Rarer still is the chance of two places named after an official. Asok Sagar is a 200-acre lake in Nizamabad district of Telangana, named after Asok Kumar the popular Collector of the district in the 2001-2003 period. This has been developed as a popular tourist destination with restaurant and boating facilities.

Asok Nagar, in Kadapa district is a new village settlement in Pulivendula, the constituency of Dr Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy, (YSR) the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. The village was named Asok-Nagar in 2006 by the Chief Minister himself after the then Collector Asok Kumar, who had helped in quick development of Kadapa district in the tenure of YSR as the CM of AP ...

Starting of 119 BCW English Medium Residential Schools on June 12, 2017, in 120 days:

This is the story of an herculean effort, successfully accomplished, to start 119 BC Welfare English Medium Schools @ 1 per Assembly constituency on 12th June 2017, in a matter of less than 120 days; after procuring and ensuring all these infrastructure facilities; recruiting over 1000 temporary staff and giving fresh admissions to 28560 students selected by conducting entrance exams –requiring close monitoring & tremendous co-ordination with district officials, vendors, government departments, parents, press and media. These schools were stabilized within a month of its starting and were functioning well, earning plaudits from parents, press, media and NITI Aayog.

Never before in the history of the country were so many Residential Schools started on a single day! (and that too in such short time)

PRAYAG- Platform for Realtime Analysis of Yamuna And Ganga and their tributaries

PRAYAG, (Platform for Real-time Analysis of Yamuna And Ganga and their tributaries), launched on 20 April 2023, serves as a Real-Time Monitoring Centre dedicated to the strategic planning and oversight of projects, river water quality, and more. It utilizes diverse online dashboards, including Ganga Tarang Portal, PMT Tool Dashboard, and Ganga Districts Performance Monitoring System and live feeds from CCTV cameras at various STPs and construction sites. This has a made a paradigm shift in functioning of the STPs, as technical data of quantity & quality of  input & output water from 308 STPs in River Ganga basin  are monitored  24X7 at PRAYAG along with river quality information from 110 locations in the River Ganga and its tributaries....

Jal Shakti Kendras (JSKs)

As an innovative attempt  to break the Silos in water sector, Asok Kumar conceptualized "Jal Shakti Kendras" (JSK) as a Common One stop resource center on all water related information of a district, as a part of the "Catch The Rain" campaign he had initiated. JSKs are now set up in over 600 out of 700 odd districts in the country.  These JSKs will also  act as “knowledge centres” for disseminating information related to water, techniques for water conservation and water saving and also provide technical guidance to local people as well as to the district administration. They will help in preparing the water budget for the district and also planning crops based on the water availability.

DGC forum meeting-- District Ganga Committees 4M -(Monthly Mandated Minuted and Monitored) Meetings

The concept of  "DGC 4M meetings" was started to push decentralised monitoring and planning and involve district administration in Namami Gange activities. 

A Pipe Dream to start daily water supply in core city areas- turned into reality

Starting of Daily Water Supply in Hyderabad Core city areas after 24 years on 14 November 2008…

Changing Cuddappa to Kadapa

A remarkable transformation of Kadapa district was brought about by Asok Kumar as Collector Kadapa, under the guidance of Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 2005-06. Even the spelling of CUDDAPAH was changed to KADAPA to give the district a new branding...

The Story of SpiceJet’s resuscitation

Dial Your Collector

In 2001, when cell phones had not yet become  popular, but the country was dotted with the “Re 1/- coin- black Public telephone boxes” and “the yellow STD” booths, this “Dial your Collector” program, Initiated by the young Collector was a game-changer. It brought about significant responsiveness, transparency, smartness, accountability and accessibility to the administration, reduced corruption and made the administration and people closer to each other than ever before. With just a phone call to Collector, made even from a Re 1 coin public telephone booth, the people from far-flung areas of the district could bring to the notice of the Collector, any matter of their choice. These were acknowledged, attended to, and action taken in a week. District topped  in a survey on responsive administration conducted 

Initiatives in Water Sector

Asok Kumar has made significant contributions to the Water and Sanitation sector with many of his novel initiatives. Staring with the 'Catch The Rain" campaign, the "Shubrata" drive to construct over 1.4 lakh+ Individual sanitary Latrines in houses and 3500+ toilets in schools and constitution of Habitation-wise drinking water committees in 2002 in  Nizamabad; starting of  daily water supply to core area in Hyderabad;  other projects in Hyderabad like the completion of Krishna Phase II project, starting of Godavari drinking water project, construction of STPs with 700+ MLD total capacity, restoration, rejuvenation and beautification of many lakes- etc; cleaning of Ganga river; starting of Webinars like Water talks, Water Tech talks etc for awareness generation etc are some of the initiatives worth mentioning.