Ganga symbol of country’s culture,state economy linked with river: Yogi - Hindustan Times
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Ganga symbol of country’s culture,state economy linked with river: Yogi

ByHT Correspondent, Lucknow
Jan 23, 2020 08:56 PM IST

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday flagged off two ‘raths’ ahead of the ‘Ganga Yatra’ that he will launch in Bijnor in western UP on January 27.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath flagging off Ganga rath in Lucknow on Thursday.(Deepak Gupta/HT)
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath flagging off Ganga rath in Lucknow on Thursday.(Deepak Gupta/HT)

One ‘rath’ will go to Bijnor where the river enters Uttar Pradesh from Uttarakhand and the other will proceed to Ballia in the east where the river flows out of the state and into Bihar.

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“UP is the first state in the country to launch the Ganga Yatra. The Ganga is a symbol of the country’s culture. The economy of the state is also linked with the river,” the chief minister said at a programme in Lucknow on the occasion.

The chief minister said the Ganga covered 2525 km in five states and the longest stretch of 1025 km was in UP.

“All of us are responsible for its cleanliness. In view of this, the state government has taken several steps to make the Ganga clean and ensure its uninterrupted flow,” he said.

Adityanath said, “Owing to the Ganga and its tributaries, North India has the most fertile land in the country. Enough water is available from the Ganga basin for 40% of the land area of the country. The state government has decided that 21 municipal bodies and 1038 gram panchayats in the districts through which the Ganga Yatra will pass, will practise organic farming in the coming years. The state government will take assistance from the Chandrashekhar Azad Agriculture University,” he said.

Announcing that the state government will also construct Ganga Park, Ganga Talab and Ganga Maidan on the banks of the river, he said the department of Jal Shakti was made the nodal department for the yatra.

During his visit to Varanasi in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s had said that he had come there on the call of Ganga, the chief minister recalled.

The PM manifested his faith in the Ganga by launching the ‘Namami Gange’ project in the country, he said.

Citing the success of the Namami Gange project, Adityanath said, “14 crore litres of sewage used to be released in the Ganga through the Sisamau drain in Kanpur and this practice was going on for 128 years. Because of the Namami Gange project, today, not a single drop of sewage is flowing into the river. There was a time when there was not a single aquatic animal left after the Jajmau drain in Kanpur.”

“It is the result of the Namami Gange project that today, fish are available there.”

Without the cleanliness of the Ganga, a divine and grand Kumbh would not have been possible in Prayagraj last year, he said.

“During the Kumbh last year, around 25 crore devotees took a holy dip in the Sangam. The devotees were able to get this opportunity after several decades due to the efforts of the prime minister,” he said.

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