Rising mercury and low water level at the main ghat has perturbed the office- bearers of Ganga Sabha and the pilgrims visiting the holy spot. With water level having gone down even below waist level, pilgrims are finding it difficult to take even a holy dip. While the officials blame it to the scanty rainfall in the previous years, the office bearers slam on the irrigation department officials for meager volume release of waters in the main ganga canal.
With Char dham pilgrimage round the corner the rush of pilgrims has started increasing to the holy city. But the low water level has become a concern for the localites and the pilgrims alike. The officials reason it to the less water inflow from uphills due to scanty rainfall in the past year- the overall effect of global warming, Ganga Sabha calls it lack of will on the part of the officials.
Speaking to The Pioneer, president of Ganga Sabha Purushottam Sharma Gandhiwadi said, “For the past 3 -4 days, there is very less water in Har Ki Pauri. It is very much violation of the agreement between Madan Mohan Malviya and the Britishers which said that a continuous stream of ganga shall be maintained at Har Ki Pauri.”
Citing his past observation, Purushottam Sharma said, “Fifteen years ago, there used to be much open space about 150 metres wide, from where the water was released into the ganga canal. But in the past few years, the edges of this ‘Bhagirathi Bindu’ have been extended, narrowing the inlet point of the ganga. It is all the more pathetic that water is not released in sufficient volumes through this 15 metres wide opening space left. Even the ganga riverbed has been raised.”
Not only did the office bearer of Ganga Maha sabha slammed the irrigation department officials responsible for controlling water volumes but also blamed the central government led by Modi who claim to revamp and clean the ganga spending crores of rupees. Gandhiwadi said, “What is the point of spending crores in cleaning of ganga when Har Ki Pauri is facing drought like conditions.”
The pilgrims visiting the holy city are also unhappy over the low water levels at Har Ki Pauri. “The only attraction in Haridwar is Har Ki Pauri for which we travel miles to take the holy dip. But it is disappointing to see the shallow river not even waist level water remains this summer,” said one of the visitors, Bhawani Jadeja from Gurgaon.”
When asked to comment on the issue, SDO Uttar Pradesh irrigation department, Sushil Yadav said, “The less rainfall in the past year has resulted in less water charging of the canal. As regards the raising of ganga riverbed, since no mining is done in this region, definitely on account of past few years, so much of silt and boulder deposition has taken place which has raised the Ganga river bed.”