The State Tourism Minister may have ambitious plans for boosting religious tourism in Uttarakhand but the Government continues to turn a blind eye to the raw sewage being dumped into the sacred Alaknanda river at Badrinath.
The stuti (devotional composition) of lord Badrinath states that the Alaknanda flows while touching the feet of the lord, but in reality this very river is being polluted near the very shrine where it is revered. Raw sewage is being dumped into this river directly from Badrinath's VIP road to main road, from Devlok Hotel to Saket intersection.
The department concerned has been informed about this major anomaly repeatedly but the Ganga Action Plan officials have remained apathetic. Though campaigns are undertaken to clean the Ganga but the continued contamination of its major tributary at Badrinath is being ignored. The raw sewage is being dumped into the Alaknanda at Badrinath for many years. The religious sentiments of the lakhs of pilgrims arriving here every year are being hurt on seeing this state of affairs.
The locals now fear that the contaminated water might even lead to diseases. All the eateries and hotels in Badrinath are dumping their waste and sewage in the river but the administration has not taken any cognisance of this problem. local KS Bhandari said that dumping of sewer in this river is causing problems for the residents of Bamni village, located near the shrine. Badrinath Vyapar Sangh head Vinod Navni that the work of Ganga Pollution Control Board which was undertaken with crores of rupees is lying incomplete.
The sewer line is damaged at many places while the executing agency has dumped the pipes on the roadside.The Nagar Panchayat advisory committee head Dhaneshwar Dadi said that the administration has been informed about this many times but no action has been taken.