All drains emptying into the Ganga river shall be tapped before January 2019 and district roads would be free of stray cattle before the onset of Kumbh Mela in 2021. This was announced by the State Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Sunday afternoon during his presidential address at the valedictory function of two day long innovative summit on Kumbh Mela organised by the Haridwar-Roorkee development authority (HRDA).
Addressing a gathering of Ministers, legislators, district officials and organisers of Kumbh Mela at Allahabad and Haridwar the Chief Minister said that Kumbh Mela in Haridwar is always a challenge and opportunity to serve crores of people who visit the holy city during this period in the hope of salvation.
The Chief Minister said that he was confident of his experienced officials and Cabinet Ministers and with the people’s participation, the coming Kumbh Mela would be a grand success. Expressing his concern over the video which went viral of Chandreshwar Nala (drain) which merges into the river Ganga near lakshmanjhula in Rishikesh, the Chief Minister said that he had received that video from one of his acquaintances in Assam.
Taking immediate action on the same he instructed that the drain be tapped since it was also hurting the sentiments of crores of people who come to Haridwar and Rishikesh. Now that place has become a ‘selfie point’, a place so clean and serene that one would pose for a photograph there, said Rawat. It is bacteria-free water and the Government is trying to do the same along the entire stretch of Ganga starting from Gaumukh, he added.
listing his second priority, Rawat said that very soon arrangement shall be made for the stray cattle roaming on roads which pose accident risk to the visitors and present a bad image of the town.
Regarding beautification of the holy city and adding as a landmark for Kumbh Mela, the Chief Minister said that symbolic creation (Pratikriti) of all the 52 Shakti Peeths of the country and those which are now in Bhutan and Afghanistan shall be made in Haridwar so that anyone visiting Haridwar can have a glimpse of all the Shakti Peeths. Haridwar itself was a Shakti Peeth so it can become a site to glorify other Shakti Peeths as well.
Citing the instance of tonnes of plastic waste coming out of sea on Juhu beach in Mumbai, the Chief Minister said that the State had the potential of making a considerable contribution to the food grains of the entire country. Its water table must be saved from getting polluted by plastic waste. From Gaumukh to Ganga Sagar the life line of Ganga must be made clean and polythene free.
Many villages in West Bengal near Ganga Sagar had become home to cancerous diseases because of this plastic contaminated water intake. By July 31, the State of Uttarakhand would be made polythene free.
The Chief Minister exhorted the district officials to make the city polythene free. He directed the officials to rope in some non government organisations for distribution of jute bags in market areas where people were found using polythene carry bags for carrying stuff.
The Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik, Additional Director General of police Ashok Kumar, legislator from Ranipur, Adesh Chauhan, Senior Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar VK and District Magistrate Deepak Rawat were among those present on the occasion.