Ganga Action Plan(GAP): The Challenge of ‘Regulatory Quality’

Basu Roy, Sharanya (2017): Ganga Action Plan(GAP): The Challenge of ‘Regulatory Quality’.

Abstract

The largest river basin of India, the Ganges (locally referred as Ganga) is one of the most important river systems in the world. It is home to almost one tenth of the world’s population. Billions of litres of sewage, industrial waste, thousands of animal and human corpses are also released into the river every day. Consequently, the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was launched in 1985 for pollution abatement as a Federal and state sponsored scheme and till date, three phases have been implemented. Even after establishing numerous institutional arrangements under the GAP and investing billions of dollars there has been no major improvement in the Ganges river water quality, in fact it has further deteriorated. Clearly governmental intervention through pollution control policies, specifically regulation has failed miserably. Therefore, an attempt has been made to analyse empirically, the legal and institutional framework of the GAP using the transdisciplinary method ‘economic analysis of law’. The results reveal that the chief underlying reason for ineffective GAP regulations is lack of a well-defined legal basis.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: water pollution, River Ganges, regulatory quality, Economic analysis of Law, public policy
• Subjects: K - Law and Economics > K0 - General; K - Law and Economics > K0 - General > K00 - General; K - Law and Economics > K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law; K - Law and Economics > K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law > K32 - Environmental, Health, and Safety Law; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q53 - Air Pollution ; Water Pollution ; Noise ; Hazardous Waste ; Solid Waste ; Recycling; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q58 - Government Policy

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