Ganga crusader’s fast enters Day 14

Jotirmay Thapliyal

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Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5

Ganga activist GD Agarwal, known as Swami Gyanswaroop Sanand, who has been on an indefinite fast for the past 14 days, on Thursday rejected Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s pleas to end his agitation.

Swami Sanand said he would not call off the agitation till his demand for passing the draft of the Ganga Protection Act was fulfilled.

Swami Sanand said he had been demanding to stop work on the Vishnugad Pipalkoti, Singoli Bhawari and Phata Byung hydropower projects, passing of the draft of the Ganga Protection Act and the creation of a national Ganga follower committee, whose permission would be mandatory before taking any decision with regard to the river.

“As the Union minister’s letter has nothing substantial as far my concerns for the Ganga are concerned, I will submit my reply to him within a few days”, said Swami Sanand. He also expressed concern over waste water being flowed into the Ganga. 

Sources said Gadkari had appealed to Swami Sanand to end his fast and assured him that no new power project would come up on the river. 

The eighty-six-year-old Ganga crusader had been on an indefinite fast at Matra Sadan in Haridwar since June 22. This is not for the first time when Swami Sanand has taken this route for the cause of the Ganga. Earlier, he launched an indefinite fast in 2009, when he was forcibly admitted to a hospital in Varanasi. In 2013, his fast for the cause of the river continued for more than 100 days.