Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2020 recruitment test, advertisement 421. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, NMJX-U-GTA); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

Which one of the following is not a correct description of the Namami Gange Programme ?

(a)It is an initiative of the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
(b)It primarily covers villages in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha.
(c)It aims to make villages on the banks of the river Ganga open defecation-free.
(d)It aims to transform some villages on the banks of the river Ganga as Ganga Grams.

Answer

Why

Correct — B, (b) It primarily covers villages in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha.

The word ‘not’ is printed in bold italic in the stem, so the question asks for the description that is FALSE. This one is, and the fault is Odisha.

The Namami Gange Programme works along the main stem of the Ganga, and that river passes through FIVE States: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The National Mission for Clean Ganga records the village component in exactly those terms — the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation identified 1,674 Gram Panchayats situated on the bank of the river Ganga in five States, namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The afforestation component names the same five.

Odisha is not among them, and it could not be, because the Ganga does not flow through it. Odisha’s rivers belong to other basins — the Mahanadi, the Brahmani, the Baitarani and the Subarnarekha. The option is also wrong by omission: it leaves out Uttarakhand, where the river rises, Jharkhand, through which it passes, and West Bengal, through which it reaches the sea.

The geography is the whole answer here, and it is worth taking the point generally. A river-basin programme covers the States the river actually runs through, so a question of this kind can be settled by tracing the course rather than by recalling the scheme document. Trace the Ganga from Gaumukh in the Gangotri glacier in Uttarakhand, through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, past Jharkhand, and across West Bengal to the Bay of Bengal, and the list of five States writes itself.

Why the others are wrong

(a)It is an initiative of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. — This description is CORRECT, so it cannot answer a question asking for the one that is not. The programme is implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, in its Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. The ministry’s name is a point on which a candidate can be caught by timing rather than by fact: the Ministry of Jal Shakti was formed in 2019 by bringing together the earlier Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, so material written before that date names the older ministry. Both statements are true of their moment, and the option as printed is accurate.
(c)It aims to make villages on the banks of the river Ganga open defecation-free. — This description is CORRECT. Sanitation in the riverside villages is one of the programme’s eight pillars, pursued through the Ganga Gram component: funds were released to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for the construction of household toilets in the 1,674 Gram Panchayats identified along the river, precisely so that human waste should stop reaching the Ganga. The logic connecting the two is worth holding, because it is what the scheme is built on — a river cannot be cleaned by treating its water alone if the settlements along its banks continue to discharge into it, so sanitation on land is part of a river programme rather than a separate welfare measure.
(d)It aims to transform some villages on the banks of the river Ganga as Ganga Grams. — This description is CORRECT too. Ganga Gram is the name of one of the programme’s eight pillars, under which villages along the river are developed as model villages — with sanitation, solid and liquid waste management, water conservation and plantation — and sixty-five such villages were adopted by thirteen Indian Institutes of Technology to be developed on that model. The option is phrased carefully with the word ‘some’, which is what makes it true: the programme identified over sixteen hundred Gram Panchayats for sanitation work, and a much smaller number for development as model Ganga Grams. On a negative question, a qualifier such as ‘some’ or ‘all’ is often where the truth or falsity of an option is decided, and it is worth reading for.

Concept

The NAMAMI GANGE PROGRAMME is an integrated conservation mission for the Ganga, approved as a flagship programme by the Union Government in June 2014 with an outlay of twenty thousand crore rupees. Its stated twin objectives are the effective abatement of pollution and the conservation and rejuvenation of the National River Ganga.

ITS EIGHT PILLARS: sewerage treatment infrastructure, river-front development, river-surface cleaning, bio-diversity, afforestation, public awareness, industrial effluent monitoring, and Ganga Gram. Between them these cover the three sources of pollution — municipal sewage, industrial effluent and the daily use of the river by the settlements along it — together with the ecological restoration of the banks.

THE GANGA GRAM PILLAR is what this question is about. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation identified 1,674 Gram Panchayats on the banks of the Ganga across five States for household toilets and sanitation work, and sixty-five villages were adopted by thirteen Indian Institutes of Technology to be developed as model villages. The United Nations Development Programme was engaged as executing agency for rural sanitation, with Jharkhand as the model State.

THE FIVE STATES are Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal — the States through which the main stem of the Ganga runs. The same five recur under the afforestation pillar, for which the Forest Research Institute at Dehradun prepared the detailed project report.

THE INSTITUTIONS. The programme is implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, in the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. Oversight rests with the National Ganga Council, which the Prime Minister chairs. The Ministry of Jal Shakti itself was created in 2019 by merging the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

THE RIVER. The Ganga rises at Gaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri glacier in Uttarakhand, is formed at Devprayag by the meeting of the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, enters the plains at Haridwar, crosses Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, skirts Jharkhand, and divides in West Bengal, one arm running as the Hooghly and the other entering Bangladesh as the Padma before reaching the Bay of Bengal. Its basin is the largest in India. Odisha lies outside it: the State is drained by the Mahanadi, the Brahmani, the Baitarani and the Subarnarekha.

This item closes the polity, governance, environment and schemes block of Part B, and it is the second of the two negative questions in that block — the stem prints ‘not’ in bold italic, and the candidate must find the single false description among four.

What makes the item answerable without having read the scheme document is that the false option is falsified by GEOGRAPHY rather than by administration. Three of the options describe what the programme does, which a candidate either knows or does not; the fourth names a State the river does not reach, which any candidate who can trace the Ganga can rule out. That is a general lesson about scheme questions: where a scheme is tied to a river, a coast, a border or a climatic zone, the physical facts usually settle at least one option, and they are more reliably known than the scheme’s own details.

The negative form again requires every option to be tested. The commonest way to lose this item is to read option (a), recognise that the Ministry of Jal Shakti is indeed responsible, and mark it because it was the first thing recognised. Marking T or F beside each option before choosing costs a few seconds and removes that failure entirely.

Government schemes are a standing part of the EPFO EO/AO syllabus, and they are tested at a consistent level of detail: the implementing ministry, the year of launch, the outlay, the geographical coverage, and the name of any distinctive component such as Ganga Gram. Preparing a one-line entry per scheme along those five headings answers most of what is asked.

Key facts

The Namami Gange Programme was approved as a flagship programme in June 2014 with an outlay of twenty thousand crore rupees.
Its twin objectives are the effective abatement of pollution and the conservation and rejuvenation of the National River Ganga.
It covers the five States through which the main stem of the Ganga runs: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Odisha is not among them.
It is implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
The National Ganga Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, oversees the programme.
Its eight pillars are sewerage treatment infrastructure, river-front development, river-surface cleaning, bio-diversity, afforestation, public awareness, industrial effluent monitoring and Ganga Gram.
Under the Ganga Gram pillar, 1,674 Gram Panchayats on the banks of the Ganga were identified for household toilets and sanitation work.
Sixty-five villages were adopted by thirteen Indian Institutes of Technology to be developed as model villages, and the United Nations Development Programme was executing agency for rural sanitation with Jharkhand as the model State.
The Ministry of Jal Shakti was formed in 2019 by merging the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
The Ganga rises at Gaumukh in the Gangotri glacier, is formed at Devprayag from the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, and enters the plains at Haridwar; Odisha is drained instead by the Mahanadi, Brahmani, Baitarani and Subarnarekha.

A river-basin programme covers the States the river actually runs through

(b) Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha — FALSE, and therefore the answer→The main stem of the Ganga passes through FIVE States: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Odisha is not among them and could not be — it is drained instead by the Mahanadi, the Brahmani, the Baitarani and the Subarnarekha. The option is wrong by omission as well, leaving out Uttarakhand where the river rises, Jharkhand through which it passes, and West Bengal through which it reaches the sea.

(a) An initiative of the Ministry of Jal Shakti — TRUE→Implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, in its Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. That ministry was formed in 2019 by merging the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

(c) Open defecation-free riverside villages — TRUE→Sanitation is pursued through the Ganga Gram component: funds were released to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for the construction of household toilets in the 1,674 Gram Panchayats identified along the river, precisely so that human waste should stop reaching the Ganga.

(d) Ganga Grams — TRUE→Ganga Gram is one of the programme’s eight pillars, under which villages along the river are developed as model villages, with sanitation, solid and liquid waste management, water conservation and plantation. Sixty-five such villages were adopted by thirteen Indian Institutes of Technology.

The eight pillars→Sewerage treatment infrastructure, river-front development, river-surface cleaning, bio-diversity, afforestation, public awareness, industrial effluent monitoring, and Ganga Gram. Between them they cover the three sources of pollution — municipal sewage, industrial effluent and the daily use of the river by the settlements along it — together with the ecological restoration of the banks.

Trace the course and the answer writes itself→The Ganga rises at Gaumukh in the Gangotri glacier in Uttarakhand, is formed at Devprayag from the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, enters the plains at Haridwar, and runs through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, past Jharkhand, and across West Bengal to the Bay of Bengal. The programme was approved in June 2014 with an outlay of twenty thousand crore rupees, and the National Ganga Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, oversees it.

Study next

The Ganga river system — its headstreams, its major tributaries, the States and cities on its course, and the Sundarbans delta.River-cleaning programmes in India: the Ganga Action Plan, the National River Conservation Plan and the arrangements that preceded Namami Gange.The institutional structure for the Ganga — the National Ganga Council, the National Mission for Clean Ganga and the State Ganga Committees.Water pollution law: the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974 and the role of the Central and State Pollution Control Boards.The Swachh Bharat Mission and the open-defecation-free framework that the Ganga Gram sanitation work draws on.The major river basins of India and the States each one drains, which is what settles most scheme-coverage questions.

Common traps

Missing the negative ask and marking the first option recognised as true.
Adding a State to a river-basin scheme because it is nearby or in the east. Odisha is outside the Ganga basin altogether.
Leaving Uttarakhand or Jharkhand off the list. The five States are those the main stem actually runs through, from the source to the sea.
Reading past a qualifier. Option (d) is true because it says ‘some’ villages; a version saying ‘all’ would be false.
Confusing the Ministry of Jal Shakti with the ministries it replaced in 2019. Material written earlier names the older ministry, and both are correct for their time.
Treating sanitation work as outside the scope of a river programme. It is one of the eight pillars.

Government schemes appear on EPFO EO/AO papers as identification or verification items, and the negative form — which of the following is NOT a correct description, or NOT a feature — is the commoner of the two. The false option is usually manufactured by altering one concrete particular: a State, a ministry, a year, an outlay or a target group. Because the alteration is factual rather than conceptual, the item rewards a candidate who has a compact sheet of schemes with ministry, year, outlay and coverage against each, and it rewards geography as much as current affairs when the scheme is attached to a river or a region.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q36Open & attempt →

Which one of the following facts pertaining to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is not correct ?

(a) The NGT was set up in the year 2010.
(b) Its purpose is to ensure effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources.
(c) It is bound by the procedure laid down under the Code of Civil Procedure.
(d) It is guided by the principles of natural justice.

Answer(c) It is bound by the procedure laid down under the Code of Civil Procedure.

The National Green Tribunal item that opens this block — the other negative question here, and the forum in which many of the disputes about river pollution are actually heard.

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q38Open & attempt →

According to the Economic Survey 2020 – 21, which one of the following will be India's real GDP growth in the year 2021 – 22 ?

(a) 9%
(b) 11%
(c) 13%
(d) 15%

Answer(b) 11%

The Economic Survey item from the same block, the other question tied to a specific government document whose details have to be recalled as printed.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Namami Gange Programme is implemented by which one of the following agencies ?
- (a)The Central Pollution Control Board
- (b)The National Mission for Clean Ganga
- (c)The Central Water Commission
- (d)The National Green Tribunal
Answer(b) The National Mission for Clean Ganga — it implements the programme under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, with oversight from the National Ganga Council chaired by the Prime Minister.
practice — not a real PYQ
The main stem of the river Ganga flows through which one of the following sets of States ?
- (a)Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal
- (b)Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal
- (c)Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha
- (d)Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal
Answer(b) Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal — these are the five States along the main stem, and they are the States the Namami Gange Programme covers. Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha lie outside the main course.