Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Saryu Roy, who has also been a major driving force behind cleansing dangerously polluted Damodar River, has urged the Union Government to fund a related study to be taken up by Central Institute of Mines and Fuel Research (CIMFR). The proposal submitted by the reputed institute would conduct a comprehensive environmental study of the river in Jharkhand. Roy, in this regard, has written a letter addressed to the Ministry of Forest and Environment saying that the study is aimed at validating the real status of the river passing through intensively industrialised and mining zones of the State. “Each of the PSUs barring SAIL has installed facilities to check effluents flowing directly into the river due to the consistent efforts of ‘Save Damodar’ movement which received a boost after Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming to power and directions issued by Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal. At present, the river is claimed to have cleaned 90 per cent and expected to be completely clean from industrial pollution by March 2018 with BSL building up the desired infrastructure. But it is also required to examine the claims scientifically for which CIMFR has prepared a detailed project and presented before the Ministry for funding. It is requested to provide sanction to the proposal quickly so that the work taken up in larger public interest can start as soon as possible,” reads the communiqué. The Minister has quoted the exemplary studies conducted by the Dhanbad-based Central Government’s institute between 1995 and 2005 on the river in the form of ‘Damodar Action Plan’ and ‘Carrying Capacity of River Damodar’. “Both the works have proved to be milestones in the concerted efforts in making the Damodar free of industrial pollution. In 2004, a collective drive under ‘Clean Damodar’ campaign banner was started. The river flows through dense industrial belt having firms like Coal India, DVC, BSL etc making the ‘Devnad’ of the past severely polluted, one of the worst in the world. Later a detailed guideline for PSUs came which made the river 90 per cent pollution free. The BSL has sought some more time and after March 2018, no industrial waste would fall into the river which would be a great example of a meaningful effort,” said the Minister, pressing for approval of the study proposal.