Centre has formed a committee to expedite the implementation of its ambitious Namami Gange programme under which it plans to free the Ganga river of waste by next year. Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti announced to form the committee while chairing the first meeting of the empowered task force on Ganga in New Delhi yesterday.<br/><br/>The secretaries of ministries of Water Resources, Environment and Forest, and Drinking Water and Sanitation will be members of the panel, which will meet at least once every fortnight.<br/><br/>Reviewing the progress of the programme, Ms Bharti expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in obtaining no-objection certificates from states, particularly Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and said these issues need to be sorted out at the earliest.<br/><br/>The Minister urged various states to constitute state and district level Ganga committees. She also said, more than two thousand 700 villages have been declared as open-defecation free out of four thousand 291 marked villages along the main stem of the river.