Chief Minister hits back on Bharatiya Janta Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s remark over cleaning of Holy River `Ganga’ claiming that the Gujrat chief minister had not consulted with the seers and saints before making such comments.
``During recents Maha Kumbh in Allahabad, saints and seers get clear water but Modi seems to have not met those religious leaders or had just enquired about the Holy river, otherwise he would have not made such comments”, reacted Akhilesh Yadav over Modi’s remark adding that Gujrat chief minister should also know that Ganga’s water has the unique quality of purifying itself.
Chief Minister further took a dig on Modi over his concern for Ganga. ``People from other States should not tell how Ganga would get purified. It does not flow in Gujarat. It flows from the mountains in Uttarakhand and converges in the Bay of Bengal,” Akhilesh said while chatting with the reporters soon after launching Skill Development Mission here on Saturday morning. He said Planning Commission should chalk out a plan for the cleaning of Ganga in consultation with groups involved and added that work was already being done in this direction. A committee under the Prime Minister has been constituted for the cleaning of the Ganga, he said. “Ganga would not get purified in the day,” the CM said.
Reacting over the next Parliament elections, Akhilesh Yadav said who would be the next Prime Minister would be decided by the people. “Communal forces are active and they have made lot of preparations. UP and SP will stop such forces,” he said adding no one was allowed to take law in his hand.
It may be mentioned during his rally in Varanasi on Friday, Narendra Modi which citing example of the cleaning of Sabarmati river in Gujarat, said that if Sabarmati could be cleaned why not Ganga here. “Prime Minister should give an account on how, when and what has been done for the purification of river Ganga. Thousands of crores of rupees have been spent on a number of schemes for this, but the condition of the river has deteriorated,” Modi had said.