River Ganga still a neglected cause in Modi's Kashi

Varanasi: Contrary to all the promises made by the Prime Minister and local MP Narendra Modi, the divine river Ganga continues be mired with filth and dirt in this holy city of Uttar Pradesh.

Modi had vouched that he was called here by ‘Maa Ganga’ and to maintain its pristine character would always remain his ordained duty. It,however, was never to be as the plight of River Ganga was for everyone to witness.

Not only Modi, but the Minister in charge of ‘Namami Gange’ Uma Bharti had also pledged to make Ganga pollution-free. ‘’It is not that the Ganga can be cleaned overnight but no effort on the part of the Centre was seen in two-year of Modi rule in the country,’’ a number of locals from kasha grudged.

• The River is losing its water level.
• The pollution has turned it into unworthy of bathing.
• Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is getting a sharp increase while dissolved oxygen is decreasing on a continuous note.
• The combination of all these problems, however, is making the livelihood of fishermen tough.
• Sea animals are also finding hard to survive due to pollution.

During a study, Varanasi’s river specialist Professor BD Tripathi and UK Chaudhary found that the level of dissolved oxygen in the river was consistently decreasing. While, BOD is increasing frequently, which, however, creates an alarming situation for sea animals.

They conducted few tests at Assi Ghat, Dashsvamedh,Panch Ganga Ghat and Raj Ghat and concluded that the water quality of Ganga was terrible. ‘’Some concerted mmediate measures are required to reclaim its quality,’’ Prof Tripathi and U K Chaudhary