UP CM to declare Ganga yatra dates

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath would announce the dates of a five-day ‘Ganga Yatra’, the state’s jal shakti minister Mahendra Singh said in Lucknow on Saturday.

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Singh asked the officers concerned to make their department’s plan for the yatra so that these plans could be presented before the chief minister.

“The yatra, inspired by prime minister Narendra Modi and the guidance of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, will pass through 26 districts and 1026 villages on the banks of the Ganga towards the end of this month,” he said.

He said during the yatra various departments will sensitise people living on the riverbank on how to keep the Ganga clean, pollution-free, and let it flow unhindered.

Singh held a meeting of various departments concerned on Saturday at his office and said that a committee will be formed for the purpose. The committee will monitor the preparations for making the ‘Bijnor to Ballia’ Ganga yatra successful.

“The first team of campaigners will start from Bijnor and will reach Kanpur Barrage. The second team will start from Ballia and will reach the Kanpur Barrage. The yatra will conclude at Kanpur Barrage. The yatra will be done via road and waterway. The chief minister will launch the yatra while the governor will conclude it. MLAs, MPs, ministers of the state and the union and social organisations will participate in it,” he said.

The Jal Shakti department is the nodal department for the yatra.

The urban development, rural development, panchayati raj, home, transport, horticulture, agriculture, forest and environment, information, tourism, culture, education, health and several other departments will participate in the yatra.

“Villagers will have a participatory role to lend the entire campaign a celebration like feel. The panchayati raj department will include students with the national flag in their hands for the campaign. The yatra will aim to make all the 21 cities on the Ganga route polythene free,” he said.

Ganga aarti too will be organised to connect people to the campaign for making the river clean. Through ‘Ganga van (Ganga forest)’ scheme, people will be inspired to plant trees on the riverbank.