The State Government has annulled the 2016 government order which had categorised the Ganga river at Har Ki Paidi in Haridwar as an escape channel. This development comes a few days after chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had said while meeting members of the religious fraternity in Haridwar that the Ganga’s status as a river would soon be restored.
It is pertinent to mention here that the previous Congress state government under Harish Rawat as the chief minister had issued the government order which had accorded status of escape channel to the Ganga at Har Ki Paidi. The government order had been issued after the National Green Tribunal had issued guidelines regarding development/construction activities along the banks of the Ganga and its tributaries in the plains. Earlier this year during July, Harish Rawat had apologised to the Ganga and members of the religious fraternity for declaring the river an escape channel during 2016 as the then CM. Stating that the decision taken by him at that time was a mistake, he had said that the current BJP government should correct the mistake. Apart from this, members of the religious fraternity had also been demanding corrective action to restore the river status of the Ganga for some years now.
Following the decision taken by the state government to annul the order declaring the Ganga an escape channel, the Bharatiya Janata Party state president Banshidhar Bhagat welcomed the decision. He said that chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had taken an important step and fulfilled the promise made by the government by correcting the step taken by the previous Congress government against the sanctity of the Ganga river. “During the term of the Congress government when Harish Rawat was the CM, a government order had been issued to declare the Ganga an escape channel in Haridwar. This was against the sanctity of the Ganga. After the formation of the BJP government CM Trivendra Singh Rawat had promised that the mistake of the Congress government would be corrected. This promise has now been fulfilled and the error of the previous government has been corrected. This has fulfilled the wishes of the millions of people who worship the Ganga,†said Bhagat.
