Union Jal Shakti Minister C. R. Patil has used the fifteenth meeting of the Empowered Task Force on Ganga conservation to set sharper, technology-led targets for a “cleaner, future-proof” river. Reviewing progress under the Namami Gange programme, he praised the faster rollout of infrastructure—ten projects in Bihar alone since the last review—and noted that tighter financial controls at the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) have cut paperwork, solved tax disputes and adopted insurance surety bonds to ease contractors’ cash flow.

To lock in gains, NMCG has drafted two field protocols: one to keep every drain’s effluent at zero untreated discharge, the other to preserve existing interception-and-diversion structures. Patil ordered District Ganga Committees to oversee the rules and maintain “constant vigilance”.

On treatment plants, the Minister insisted that safety drills and third-party audits become routine. Premier institutes such as IIT-BHU’s SLCR and IIT-Delhi’s Centre of Excellence will test performance, while NMCG’s online dashboard will track outputs in real time.

The meeting also launched two science-based initiatives: Riverathon 1.0, a national hackathon with Amity University on LiDAR-guided floodplain mapping, biodiversity and disaster tools; and eight “Status and Trends” booklets that chart the ecological health of major Ganga tributaries from the Ramganga to the Sone, produced with the Wildlife Institute of India.

Senior officials from the power, tourism, urban affairs and environment ministries, along with representatives from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar, pledged co-ordinated action on resource adequacy, transmission clearances and forest permissions to ensure that the river’s revival stays on course.