Ecological tribute to Gandhi

New Delhi, Mar 11 (UNI) A march to save the Ganga river and the Himalayas will be held by 20 organisations tomorrow, 76 years after Gandhiji held his historic Dandi march, demanding the right over salt extracted from the sea for the citizens of the country.

Inspired by the march led by the Father of the Nation on March 12, 1930, to ensure the rights of his countrymen over their natural resources, the organisations will celebrate the occasion marching from Rajghat to Rashtrapati Bhawan and present their ten demands to President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in pursuance of the cause.

''The march will conclude with the presentation of our ten demands to save the Ganga and the Himalayas to the Prime Minister and President and it is geared towards creating a mass Gandhian movement for free clean water and air or all,'' said the convenor of save Ganga movement Rama Rauta.

A talk on the topic organised today was attended by 15 organisations from all over the country.

Ms Rauta said the movement will now take a spiritual form and will also see a new direction with the integration of scientists in the movement. Pandit Vasanta Gadgil of the Multivarsity Vedic Research Centre, Swami Nikhilanandaji of the Chinmaya Mission, Sudhanshu Maharaj of the Viswa Jagarati Mission and Sundarlal Bahuguna of the Tehri Movement will meet the Prime Minister on Monday with the ten demands.

The demands include formation of a highpowered committee under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister to ensure the implementation of the Ganga Action Plan, a Save Himalaya Project to save the forests and wild life of the Himalayas to be headed by a similar high powered committee, plantation of trees recommended by the National Botanical Reserch Institute on the banks of the Ganga and development of wetlands on the banks of the Ganga for treatment of sewage in them.

Mr Rauta blames the apathy of the government and the lack of political and bureaucratic will for the failure of the Ganga Action Plan.

The other demands are prevention of use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides which pollute the Ganga, banning of dumping of industrial waste in the rivers, generation of awareness of the issues through allocation of more time in radio and TV to it and inclusion of environmental ethics as part of the syllabus of schoools and colleges.

UNI ARB PA KN1803