VARANASI, INDIA (APRIL 29, 2012) 4:3) (ANI ) By Girish Kumar Dubey
In recent years, the deplorable condition and the flow of River Ganga has raised alarm among the people.
Scores of people came forward to show solidarity to the cause of River Ganga.
People were seen pouring water which they had brought from their homes.
Vinay Katiyar, a protester and devotee highlighted the significance of the protest.
"Today, we have organised a unique protest in which all the villagers including women and children are pouring the water brought from their homes in the River Ganga. It was a protest against the government, which has stopped the continuity of the river by constructing 55 dams over it. So, in order to revive the flow of River Ganga, all the villagers have come forward to show a retaliatory protest against the government," said Katiyar.
He also mentioned that over the past several decades, the locals have been witnessing a constant fall in the quantum as well as level of the river and these trends have caused much concern, particularly among those who devotedly revere River Ganga.
Highlighting this aspect, activists including Hindu Monks all across the country have demanded nearly 5,000 cusecs of water from the federal and provincial government so as to raise the level of the river at Allahabad for the Kumbh Mela in 2013.
Incidentally, River Ganga is joined by River Yamuna and the mythical River Saraswati at Allahabad.
Hindus regard the point of confluence, named Sangam to be sacred. Periodically, a huge fair known as Kumbh Mela is organised in which tens of thousands of pilgrims from across the country take part and this event also happens to be a major attraction for tourists from abroad.
Apart from the shrinking river, the accumulation of silt deposit and garbage along the banks has worried the environmentalists despite millions of rupees being spent on the Action River Ganga Plan.
"I have come along with my team members of Association for Social and Health Advancement (ASHA) group. We have brought water from our homes. We have taken a pledge that we will make our mother Ganga pure," said a member of Association for Social and Health Advancement (ASHA), Sushma Devi.
In 2011, the federal government approved a $1 billion loan from the World Bank, to fund an eight-year project to clean the River Ganga, in particular the large stretches heavily polluted by industrial effluents and domestic waste.
The 2,510-kilometre-long river that runs from a glacier in the western Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh supports over 400 million of India's 1.2 billion populations.
Environmental activist G D Aggarwal had undertaken fast-unto-death in the month of February as a mark of protest against the government's apathy towards the worsening condition of the River Ganga.
Recently, a meeting of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) was presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on April 17.
Federal Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Minister of Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan were also present at the meet.
State Chief Ministers Akhilesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh, Vijay Bahuguna of Uttarakhand, Nitish Kumar of Bihar and Arjun Munda of Jharkhand besides environmental activists and Hindu monks were among others who took part in the NGRBA deliberations.
Environmental activists including villagers organise a protest in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state to raise the issue of the uninterrupted flow of River Ganges and to maintain its sanctity.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL
VARANASI, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA (APRIL 29, 2012) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC)
1. WOMEN HOLDING POTS IN THEIR HANDS
2. A POT SEEN IN THE HAND OF A WOMAN
3. A PLACARD READING 'COME OUT OF THE HOUSE, FILL GANGA- SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGH YOUTH BRIGADE'
4. PROTESTERS HOLDING PLACARDS
5. A PLACARD READING 'DO NOT LET THE ATTEMPTS OF BHAGIRATH GO WASTE-ABHAAS' IN HINDI
6. PROTESTERS MARCHING ON ROAD
7. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) A PROTESTER AND A DEVOTEE, VINAY KATIYAR, SAYING:
"Today, we have organised a unique protest in which all the villagers including women and children are pouring the water brought from their homes in the River Ganga. It was a protest against the government, which has stopped the continuity of the river by constructing 55 dams over it. So, in order to revive the flow of River Ganga, all the villagers have come forward to show a protest against the government."
8. PROTESTERS POURING WATER INTO GANGA RIVER
9. PROTESTERS RAISING SLOGANS
10. PROTESTERS POURING WATER INTO GANGA RIVER
11. ROSE PETALS FLOATING ON THE SURFACE OF RIVER GANGA
12. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) A MEMBER OF ASSOCIATION FOR SOCIAL AND HEALTH ADVANCEMENT (ASHA), SUSHMA DEVI, SAYING:
"I have come along with my team members of Association for Social and Health Advancement (ASHA) group. We have brought water from our homes. We have taken a pledge that we will make our mother Ganga pure."
13. BOATS SEEN AT THE BANK OF RIVER GANGA
14. PROTESTERS POURING WATER INTO GANGA RIVER
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