New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Namami Gange, the mission to clean and rejuvenate the holy river, must focus on urban sewage and industrial effluents, in order to check pollution at its source. Industrial units should be motivated to recycle waste and violators should be punished, Modi told a meeting on Tuesday, according to a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The meeting was attended by the minister for urban development Venkaiah Naidu, minister for road transport, highway and shipping Nitin Gadkari, minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation Uma Bharti and environment minister Prakash Javdekar. The meeting discussed the gaps in sewage treatment capacity. A total of 764 grossly polluting industrial units have been identified along the Ganga so far, including tanneries, sugar industries and pulp and paper factories. The statement said, “The concept of a network of volunteers to help end pollution of the river—Ganga Vahini—has been approved. Steps are being taken to operationalize this network.” Under this project, 118 urban bodies have been identified that will be covered within five years. The PM also asked to explore the possibility of setting up modern, environment-friendly crematoria along the river through private initiative. In July, finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced an outlay of Rs.2,037 crore for Ganga conservation efforts. He allocated Rs.100 crore for preparation of detailed project reports on interlinking of rivers, and set aside a sum of Rs.100 crore for the development and beautification of the ghats in Kedarnath, Haridwar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Patna and Delhi. The mission to clean Ganga has been a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has also set up a designated ministry for the rejuvenation of river Ganga.