Binay Singh
Varanasi: When the UP urban development minister Ashutosh Tandon on Wednesday was claiming that not a single drop of wastewater would be allowed to go into Ganga and all the sewer lines opening in the Ganga have been tapped, millions of litres of sewage were being discharged into the holy river through Khidkiya and Nagwa drains.
Tandon made this claim while addressing a public meeting at Ramnagar held as a part of much publicised ‘Ganga Yatra’ -a five-day journey started from Bijnor and Ballia on January 27 to create awareness for Ganga and motivate the masses for making it free from pollution. The two yatras will culminate at Kanpur on January 31.
One of the Ganga Yatras starting from Ballia reached Varanasi on Tuesday, and a public meeting was also held at Bhaisasur Ghat, just at some distance from Khidkiya nala, a big drain through which the wastewater goes into Ganga continuously. And, on Wednesday the Ganga Yatra passed through the Nagwa drain while moving from Assi Ghat to Ramnagar Ghat.
The Ganga Yatra, which is the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Namami Gange programme to save the river from pollution, was being participated by a number of Union and UP ministers and MLAs. But, all of them turned a blind eye to the open truth when the yatra was sailing in the wastewaters particularly near the Nagwa drain.
Would Ganga Yatra achieve its goal by turning a blind eye to the naked truth?
