New Delhi: India has spent less than a quarter of the funds available for a programme to clean up the Ganga over the last two years, a federal audit has found, citing lapses in planning and financial management of a flagship scheme.

The government had only used Rs 16.6 billion of the Rs 67 billion earmarked for the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) programme between April 2015 and March 2017, according to the report from the comptroller and auditor-general of India. The water quality in eight of 10 towns surveyed along the Ganga did not meet outdoor bathing standards.

"The performance audit revealed deficiencies in financial management, planning, implementation and monitoring, which led to delays in achievement of milestones," the auditor said in its 160-page report which was presented to Parliament last week.

The water resources ministry, which runs the NMCG, did not respond to a request for comment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration committed Rs 191 billion in 2015 for a five-year project to clean the 2,525km river that remains heavily polluted despite being a water source for 400 million people.

Modi, who represents Varanasi on the banks of the Ganga, had made the clean-up of the river one of his key campaign promises in the 2014 general election.

The Ganga is a destination for waste produced by hundreds of factories - over three-quarters of the sewage generated in the towns and cities of the northern plains flows untreated into the river. Reuters