Volunteers clean Birla Ganga ghat in Haridwar

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, March 26

Volunteers cleaned the Birla Ganga ghat as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan here today.

The Birla Ganga ghat was cleaned under the aegis of the Nehru Youth Centre and the Divya Sewa Prem Mission. Divya Sewa Prem Mission coordinator Sanjay Chaturvedi apprised the volunteers about the significance of the Ganga, which flows from Gaumukh in Gangotri in Garhwal Himalayas till Ganga Sagar in the Bay of Bengal.

Chaturvedi said the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and Namami Gange are ambitious projects initiated by the Prime Minister to make India and the Ganga clean. “It’s our moral responsibility and citizenry duty to ensure we make country and the sacred river pollution and garbage free. We regard the Ganga as our deity mother and hence how can we as its children even think of polluting it,” said Chaturvedi.

Nehru Youth Centre district coordinator Dinesh Upadhyay said Uttarakhand is the origin of the sacred Ganga and Yamuna, which provide livelihood to more than 80 crore people. But due to pollution, the theological, spiritual, religious and scientific values of the two rivers have been affected.

Social activist and president of the Gobind Kripa Sewa Samiti Anita Verma urged youths to actively take part in the clean Ganga drive as their youthful energy and enthusiam could come hand for the cause.

Religious and social activist Anirudh Bhati urged local people, devotees, pilgrims and tourists not to pollute the Ganga by throwing garbage in it and help in generating mass awareness in this regard.

Volunteers from Lakshar, Khanpur, Roorkee, Bahadarabad and Narsain blocks of the district took part in the cleanliness drive.

Anand Ranakoti, Anupam Tyagi, Sandeep Goswami, Vineet Jolly and Bharat Lok Sewa Sansthan members Manoj Pal, Pooja, Ravi, Popan Kumar, Vipin Kumar, Ankit, Yogesh and Yashveer Chauhan, Devendra coordinated the cleanliness activity.