A disciple of Swami Shivanand of Matri Sadan Ashram at Haridwar, Brahmachari Dayanand has alleged that a contract killer had been hired by the mining mafia to eliminate Swami Shivanand to get rid of the consistent opposition to quarrying in the Ganga and other areas.
The police was about to expose those behind the contract but the Haridwar senior superintendent of police was transferred out of the district before he could do so.
Addressing the media here on Sunday, Dayanand said that the Matri Sadan had been agitating against illegal and improper mining on the Ganga riverbed. “Earlier quarrying was being allowed on the riverbed on the grounds that boulders need to be removed as the river continues to deposit these in the area. We proved scientifically that boulders do not reach till Haridwar.
Matri Sadan headed by Swami Shivanand has been struggling against the mining mafia since 1998 and recently we came to know that the mining mafia had given out a contract for the assassination of the Swami. We had approached the police and the Haridwar police was cooperating with us, investigating the case. However, before the then Haridwar senior superintendent of police Sadanand Date was transferred out of Haridwar,” he averred.
Regarding the announcements and initiatives of the Central Government for environmental conservation and rejuvenation of the Ganga river, Dayanand said, “The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said some impressive things especially about the Ganga. However the Ministry of Environment and Forests has just granted forest clearance for quarrying in Haridwar, the licenses for which had expired in 2012.”
It is worth mentioning here that another disciple of Shivanand, Swami Nigamanand had undertaken a hunger strike against illegal mining in the Ganga riverbed in February 2011 and had died on June 13, 2011 after fasting for more than 100 days.