Ganga declaration meaningless until Bill passed: VHP

New Delhi, Nov 5 (UNI) Terming the government's announcement of Ganga as national river a ''farce'', the VHP today said unless a Bill in Parliament was brought to 'save Ganga' the move was meaningless and would prove hollow.

Addressing a gathering in Allahabad VHP (Intl), president Ashok Singhal said unless a parliamentary legislation was brought to institutionalise cleaning of the Ganga, the whole exercise of the government would remain a hollow declaration.

''Unless prompt action was taken to maintain the free flow of the Ganga's water, for which several projects being carried out on Bhagirathi will need to be reviewed, no purpose of the declaration would be served.'' Earlier, the BJP commenting on the UPA government's newly-found faith in the river Ganga said declaring it a ''National River'' just before the Assembly elections, held no relevance.

''It is irrelevant as people can see through this. This was the same government which has been sitting on NDA's inter-linking of rivers project for the past four years,'' said its spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, adding how could one trust this government as it is the same which has denied the very existence of Lord Rama and was bent upon breaking the Ram Setu.

The Centre had yesterday decided to declare Ganga the ''National River'', and also set up a ''Ganga River Basin Authority'' as an empowered planning, implementing and monitoring authority for the river.

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