Varanasi holy men demand scrapping of dam projects on Ganga

Varanasi, May 9 (ANI): Hundreds of holy men in Varanasi held a rally on Saturday and demanded scrapping of dam projects on the River Ganga to save the livelihood of people.

They also say that the Ganga River, which flows through Gangotri in Uttarakhand, is much more cleaner than the river that flows Varanasi.

"We want that every dam project should be scrapped. Ganga should be clean because livelihood of ten to 20 crore people is linked with Ganga. The Indian Constitution says that a government should not do anything that hampers the livelihood of a person. That's why, now we are asking the government politely that such projects should be scrapped," said Swami Narendranand, a Hindu pontiff.

"We are also taking help of acts like RTI (Right to Information). Besides that, we want to know what would be an alternative solution for the issue. For example, looking for an alternative way of producing energy is a legal outlook; similarly there is a constructive prospect as well. Therefore, every step would be taken to create awareness. We would also pressurise the ministers for this," said K N Govindacharya, a former leader of BJP.

The Ganga is one of the main rivers of the Indian subcontinent, which rises from the Himalayas and drains into the Sunderbans delta of Bay of Bengal. (ANI)