The Centre has included Sahibganj district of Jharkhand in its endeavour to make the river Ganga pollution-free. Decision to expand the coverage of, what is being projected as the dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ‘clean Ganga Mission’ into the State has been taken after the State Government approached Delhi with a formal request considering drainage area of the river passing through the district.
The Centre has in this regard has called a meeting with top officials of Drinking Water and Sanitation Department and those associated with the ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ through video conferencing on Tuesday. Sources in the Department said that main agenda of the meeting would be to define the role of panchayats in dealing with the rampant river pollution. “After our initiative, Director in the Water Resources Ministry Sujay Majumdar contacted us and sought for the list of village panchayats situated along the river Ganga in Sahibganj district. We in the tomorrow’s meeting would be furnishing the list to them and also share the role the anganwadis and gram panchayats can play in managing solid and liquid wastes generating over there,” said Rajendra Prasad, an official associated with NBA.
At least four blocks — Sahibganj, Rajmahal, Udhwa and Barharwa — are close to the river taking the approximate number of panchayats over 400. The initiative to focus on panchayats is aimed to check the supply of effluents coming into river untreated in the form of solid and liquid waste. “We would discuss measures like building toilets, soak pits, drainage and completely stop open defecation into the
panchayats on priority basis as far as the mission clean Ganga is concerned.
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