Ganga Task Force, Territorial Army and Namami Gange Mission
In January 2019 when the Uttar Pradesh government organises the Kumbh Mela, it will have a special unit to help a volunteer force of ex – servicemen.
Ganga Task Force
The Ganga Task Force (GTF) was specially trained by the Ministry of Defence for this purpose.
They will help with crowd management, spread awareness on keeping the river clean and stop people and industry from polluting the river, spread awareness on keeping the river clean and stop people and industry from polluting the river.
At present, a “battalion” of 300 personnel has already been trained and stationed at Allahabad.
The GTF is a unit of the Territorial Army deployed in the services of the Ganga with the approval of Ministry of Defence for four years till December 2020.
It consists of three companies of over 100 men each to be stationed at Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi, with the battalion headquarters at Allahabad.
The jawans have also been trained by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to measure the health of the river.
The National Mission for Clean Ganga runs the ‘Namami Gange’ mission to clean the Ganga.
What is Namami Gange Mission/Programme?
‘Namami Gange Programme’, is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as ‘Flagship Programme’ by the Union Government in June 2014 to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.
- It has a ₹20,000 crore project,
- It is Centrally funded,
- It has a non-lapsable corpus and
- It consists of nearly 288 projects.
What is a Territorial Army?
The English raised the Territorial Amy in 1920. After Independence the Territorial Army Act was passed in 1948. The Territorial Army is a part of Regular Army.
It is a voluntary force of civilians doing the uniform job for a few months every year without joining the regular Army. Interested people can join the Territorial Army between the age group of 18 to 42 years.
Role of Territorial Army
The current role of Territorial Army is to relieve the Regular Army from static duties and assist civil administration in dealing with natural calamities and maintenance of essential services in situations where life of the communities is affected or the security of the Country is threatened and to provide units for Regular Army as and when required.
The Territorial Army units were actively involved in 1962, 1965 and 1971 operations.
Eligibility Criteria
One of the eligibilities to join the territorial army is that the individual should be well settled and employed.
Famous Personalities who joined Territorial Army
In 2016, BJP MP and former BCCI President Anurag Thakur joined the territorial army. Also many other famous personalities like Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Abhinav Bindra, film actor Mohanlal etc are also a part of the Territorial Army.
Prepared By: Eswar Sai