Ganga Mahasabha has moved High Court against the official declaration of the stretch of Ganga from Bhagirathi Bindu to Har Ki Paidi (Brahmkund) as an escape channel of the Ganga canal and not as the main Ganga. Notably, then State Government helmed by Harish Rawat had issued a notification in 2016 which declared the Ganga stretching from Bhoopatwala till Daksheswar Mahadev temple as a canal. Har ki Pauri, the fabled ghat where pilgrims take holy dip, is located along the stretch. The notification was allegedly meant to remove obstacles to developmental works close to the river bank in view of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban on construction within certain metres of Ganga.
Questions are being raised since then on the notification by the people who say that declaring Ganga as Ganga canal which flows by the revered Har ki Pauri is wrong. Finally, Ganga Mahasabha, the apex body of the priests, has moved the court, demanding scrapping of the government order.
Speaking to The Pioneer, general secretary of Ganga Mahasabha Purushottam Ram Kumar Mishra said, “We have submitted a petition in Uttarakhand High Court. The court has fixed a date for hearing the petition.
We have been asked to provide some informative documents.” He further said that Ganga Mahasabha would submit the documents sought by the court through a lawyer soon. Observers say that since NGT had banned construction of any structure in 200 metres from Ganga, the business community, builders, hoteliers and some ashram owners were perturbed and subsequently they pressured then chief minister Harish Rawat to go for the notification to bypass the order.
The Ganga Mahasabha functionaries said that when they had approached the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on the issue he had said that the order was scrapped and the file was sent to the urban development minister.
“However, thanks to some ministers and builders, the old order- which is supposed to have been scrapped- is still in force,” said a senior Ganga Mahasabha functionary.