INDIA
Ganges too filthy for holy dip: Sadhus
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
IANS
LUCKNOW: Terming the Ganges as badly polluted and unfit for bathing, a group of sadhus have threatened to boycott a ceremony on January 28 in Allahabad on the occasion of a major religious festival.
Nearly 300,000 devotees take a dip in the waters at the Sangam - the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the now extinct Saraswati - on the occasion of Mauni Amawasya, a festival celebrated on the moonless night of the Hindu calendar month of Magh.
A group of Hindus arrived from Allahabad to complain to Uttar Pradesh Governor TV Rajeshwar and Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav about the river getting increasingly dirty.
"We may be forced to boycott the holy bath on the most auspicious night of Mauni Amawasya if the administration fails to ensure appropriate measures to rid the river of the filth at Sangam," Hari Narain Swami, who led the delegation, said.
The chief minister referred the matter to Irrigation Minister Munna Singh Chauhan, who put the blame on neighbouring Uttaranchal, from where the river flows into Uttar Pradesh.
"We are not responsible for the pollution of the Ganges. Uttaranchal has not done anything to check the release of effluents from paper mills in Kashipur in Nainital district," Chauhan said.
The water is polluted with the wastes from these mills as it reaches Allahabad downstream, he said. Chauhan said the government was planning to release 500 cusecs of water from the upstream Narora dam which would reach Sangam before January 28.
Copyright © 2006Times Internet Limited.