The heads of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand will be asked to update Modi on the measure they are taking to work to clean the sacred river of industrial effluent and untreated sewage.

 

This comes after taking a strong view of the progress of the Ganga Action Plan, the Supreme Court had earlier wanted a time frame from the NDA Government for completion of the task.

 

In a sharp criticism of the progress of the Ganga Action Plan, the Supreme Court had asked the NDA government whether it would be able to complete the cleaning of the river in this term or in the next.

 

A 3-judge bench, headed by Justice TS Thakur had asked the Government whether the work would be completed this term or the next term.

 

"The cleaning of the Ganga has been on for the last 30 years and around Rs. 2000 crore have been spent so far. Do you want to complete it this term or the next term... keeping the issue alive?" the had court said.

 

 Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar had told the court that the work could be completed by 2018.  He said already 118 towns along the river have been identified for the setting up of sewage treatment plants.

 

The court had directed the Centre to submit a status report on the progress of work mentioned by the Solicitor General.

 

"We don't want to get into the nitty-gritty of committees. You should take steps so that Ganga gets its pristine glory. We don't know whether we will see it or not," the court had said.

 

"Since we have handed over the issue of industrial pollution to the National Green Tribunal, only domestic waste is left, and we hope you don't have financial problem for the project," the court had said.

 

It was the second time in the last six months that the apex court criticised the state of progress of cleaning up the Ganga- a work that started in 1985.