Matri Sadan seer Swami Shivanand asked Chief Minister Harish Rawat to stick to his pledge taken during his Haridwar visit on Monday to stop Ganga from being plundered of her natural resources.
Notably, CM said that he would not grudge loss of revenue to prevent the Mother Ganga from being robbed of her natural resources.
“We hope that CM would not backtrack from this pledge under pressure from those engaged in plundering the holy river and tributaries,” the seer said on Wednesday while addressing a press conference at his ashram in Jagjeetpur.
Referring to CM’s statement that he favours scientific mining, the seer said that the highest level committee of Uttarakhand comprising disaster management officials and scientists had stated in clear terms that the boulders do not come down to Ganga from upstream. “The question is as to why big JCB machines are allowed to be deployed by the stone crushers to lift the stones and boulders from Ganga riverbedIJ” he asked.
He also asked CM to explain as to why mining is carried out in Kharkhari area and not at Har Ki Pauri. “If the sands collect in the Kharkhari riverbed the same happens at Har Ki Pauri. The logic behind lifting sand and sandstones from the riverbeds to stop flood is just a fig leaf to hide the real motive behind mining,” the seer said, adding that the people are not fools not to see through it.
Speaking of the extension of Kumbh area till Rudraprayag, he said that the Harish Rawat Government should have stretched Kumbh area southwards and not upwards towards Rudraprayag where no pilgrim goes during the mela.
“As witnessed in 2010 Kumbh Mela, many sadhus could not pitched tents on account of space crunch in the designated area of Kumbh Nagar. Bishenpur area towards south in Kumbh nagar being included by way of extension could serve two purposes, expanding area of Kumbh Nagar to facilitate the pilgrims and checking illegal mining,” said the seer.