Post-Kanwar Mela, city presents an unholy sight

Sandeep Rawat

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, August 4

Various organisations are holding functions to felicitate district administration officers for the successful completion of the Kanwar Yatra. At the same time, the left over wastage, garbage and filth accumulated at Har-ki-Pauri and the nearby mela zone seem to have eluded the attention of the administration.

Heaps of garbage are lying scattered from Pantdeep, Bairagi camp, Kankhal to the Kanwar stretch.

A temporary muddy drain is flowing into the Ganga near the Jai Ashram bridge where waste, plastic and food material are spilled over. The waste flowed with the rainwater into the Ganga just a few meters from the sanctum-sanctorum of Brahmakund, Har-ki-Pauri.

Social activist JP Baduni said the Ganga is getting polluted at Har-ki-Pauri, despite the directives of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), launching of the first phase of the Namami Gange and sewage treatment projects of the Ganga Pollution Control Board.

“Millions of people bathe in the Ganga and fetch Ganga jal from Har-ki-Pauri, but a few know that it is contaminated and polluted with sewer water and other wastage. Even the Ganga Sabha, which manages the affairs of Har-ki-Pauri, local administrative officials, public representatives, local traders and teerath purohits are silent over the issue,” said Baduni, who has filed numerous RTIs on the Ganga pollution.

Municipal Town Commissioner Vipra Trivedi said the matter had been brought to her notice and she would take measures to ensure that polluted water does not flow into the river.

Ajay Sharma, a representative of Ganga Aahwan Akhada, said the Irrigation Department had failed to clean the ghats in its periphery and large-scale encroachment was taking place on Ganga ghats and the mela land.