Others should not teach us to clean Ganga: Akhilesh Yadav

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said people from other states should not teach the state about cleaning the Ganga, and added that the responsibility for cleaning should be shared with the Centre.

"The other states should not teach UP to clean the Ganga. They don't have a Ganga in their states. Ganga flows from the Himalayas in Uttarakhand, and then, flows through the UP. It is not solely the responsibility of the U.P. Government to clean it. It is also a responsibility of the centre," he said in response to Narendra Modi's charge that despite several schemes and a substantial budget, the Ganga is still not cleaned.

On the coming 2014 general elections, he said, "The elections of 2014 are for the prime minister's post. The people of this country will vote on this. The people of Uttar Pradesh and the Samajwadi Party will stop the communal forces that have done a lot of preparation."

On charges of corruption against several officers in the UP, he said, "They should have told this in our party office, or to the SP leadership. They can also write to us and name the officer or the bureaucrat who has indulged in such malpractices. They should explain properly the charges in the letter. After this, we will take instant action against the officers involved.