Regulation under Namami Gange has moved from periodic enforcement to continuous compliance. Critically examine with reference to Grossly Polluting Industries.

Grossly Polluting Industries (GPIs) are units that discharge into a watercourse and either have a BOD load of 100 kg/day or more or handle hazardous substances [4]. State Pollution Control Boards used to check them only now and then. Since 2017, Namami Gange has set up a yearly inspection cycle run by outside experts and based on measured data. However, regulation is still only partly continuous.

Shift towards continuous compliance

• Third-party annual inspection: technical institutes (25 in 2025, 40 for 2026) and SPCB officers check every GPI against its Consent to Operate. Geo-tagged photos of bypasses leave less room for collusion [1].
• Real-time monitoring: by 2019, OCEMS at 885 of 1,072 GPIs was linked to the CPCB server [2].
• Prevention over penalty: sector Charters for pulp & paper, sugar, distillery, textile and tannery push water recycling and Zero Liquid Discharge. These five sectors carry ~88% of the basin's pollution load [1].
• Measurable outcomes: Ganga-basin compliance rose from 39% (2017) to 86% (2025). BOD load fell from 26 to 7.16 tonnes/day [1].
• Enforcement backstop: non-compliant units get closure directions under Section 5, EP Act, 1986 [2].

Limits: still largely periodic

• Snapshot checks: inspections happen once a year, and ~17% of GPIs had no OCEMS link in 2019 [2].
• Treatment, not reduction: BOD load fell ~72% but effluent volume fell only ~21% [1].
• Flattering metrics: compliance counts only operational units. In 2018, 215 of 961 inspected GPIs had simply shut down [2]. Operational units grew from 888 to 3,154, so the trend compares different groups [1].
• Weak follow-up: the CAG (Report No. 39 of 2017) found CPCB did only 63% of required compliance checks in 2011–17, and NMCG had staff shortages of 44–65% [3].
• Threshold blind spot: small tanneries and dye units below the GPI threshold escape inspection. They depend on shared treatment plants (CETPs), and the Banther CETP is still incomplete [5].

Namami Gange has replaced one-off raids on GPIs with a structured, evidence-based compliance cycle, but a yearly visit is not continuous oversight. Making OCEMS universal, publishing results for every unit, adding SPCB staff for follow-up and funding CETPs beyond Phase-II (sanctioned only to March 2026) [5] can finish the shift. That would serve the environmental duty in Article 48A and SDG 6.3.