Chennai: Regional party protests against sale of Gangajal

Members of regional Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) party has held protest in Chennai against the Central Government for selling 'Gangajal', water from the holy river Ganges.

The Indian Postal Department began sale of 'Gangajal' water for religious purposes on Monday under a new scheme launched by the Centre.

Scores of protestors gathered outside the Anna Salai post office and shouted slogans against the Central government.

The protesters said that the holy Ganges River was highly polluted and its water could lead to fatal diseases.

"The ganga water is entirely fully impurity water.selling impure water.the World (Health) Organisation has also certified that this water is highly impurity water. It cannot be used anywhere. So a lot of people sustained cancer and other disease because of the drinking of Ganga water," said a protester, V. Elangovan.

The protesters were later detained by the police.

Under a Centre-sponsored scheme, holy water- drawn from two river sources at Gangotri and Rishikesh in the northern Uttarakhand state- were made available at 809 post offices across the country.

As per reports, the plan to provide the holy water has already been implemented by some of the e-commerce websites and for a litre bottle sourced from Gomukh, the e-commerce company charges Rs 299.