Matribhumi Samachar English
The 12th meeting of the Empowered Task Force (ETF) on Ganga Rejuvenation was chaired by Minister of Jal Shakti Sh. C. R. Paatil, in the presence of MoS, Dr. Raj Bhushan Choudhary. Senior officials, including Sh. Ashok K. Meena OSD, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Sh. Rakesh Kumar Verma (AS), Sh. Rajeev Kumar Mital (DG), Executive Directors, and representatives from Ministry of Power, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change. The meeting was also attended by Sh. Anurag Srivastava, Principal Secretary State Government of Uttar Pradesh;Sh. Sunil Kumar Yadav Additional Secretary State Government of Bihar, Sh. Shailesh Bagauli Secretary, State Government of Uttarakhand Sh. Sunil Kumar, Principal Secretary State Government ofJharkhand and Ms. Nandini Ghosh Project Director SPMG West Bengal.
Director General NMCG, Sh. Rajeev Kumar Mital gave a detailed presentation on various issues and briefed the Minister about the progress made since the last meeting.
During the session, a comprehensive action plan for the rejuvenation of River Ganga was discussed. Key topics included progress under the Namami Gange program, with a special focus on the reuse of treated water, biodiversity conservation, remediation of polluted river stretches, and the implementation of the River Action Plan and natural farming. The Minister called for a unified approach among stakeholders to closely monitor and evaluate the progress of Ganga-related projects, stressing the need to preserve the sanctity of the sacred river through dedicated conservation efforts. Rural and urban sanitation efforts have a big role in river cleaning and directed to complete the targets for creation of infrastructure in a time bound manner.
The Minister for Jal Shakti directed state Governments to assist NMCG in completing the pollution abatement efforts as under to take river cleaning effort to next level:
Shri Paatil emphasized the spiritual connect of the river Ganga in the country and directed that tourism potential along the banks of this sacred river should be harnessed. This will develop the economy of the region and also giveboost to infrastructure.
Shri Paatil also emphasized that Urban River Management Plans provide a comprehensive approach to river rejuvenation efforts at the city level and these should be mainstreamed to improve the health of urban rivers. He emphasized that the River City Alliance (RCA) should focus on ensuring co-learning amongst the river cities and should act as a platform for resolution of river related issues. He appreciated the concept of Smart Lab for Clean Rivers which is being developed with Danish collaboration and IIT (BHU) and would help in small river rejuvenation efforts in the country.
The Minister stressed upon need for adopting natural farming practices along the Ganga basin as it would help in river rejuvenation. Ministry of Agriculture mentioned that they would support this initiative of NMCG and will actively collaborate to take this initiative forward. An action plan would be prepared to upscale the activities under Natural Farming with a focused approach.
As an institutional development initiative, it was decided to have a clean Ganga workshop jointly by Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation and NMCG to sensitize the DGCs about the initiatives.
The Minister emphasized the collaborative efforts by all the stakeholders in furthering the cause of river rejuvenation and mentioned that ETF provides a platform for focused deliberation on the river related issues. He mentioned that all the stakeholders would work together to achieve the targets and goals set by Hon’ble Prime Minister for taking the Ganga river rejuvenation efforts to next level and make it a model to look up to.
