Protest planned to save Yamuna from pollution

A nation-wide protest is being planned early next year to save the Yamuna river from pollution, the organisers said Monday.

Spearheading the Yamuna Bachao Abhiyan, volunteers from the Yamuna Rakshak Dal will on Dec 5 distribute pamphlets in Delhi to force political parties to include Yamuna in their agenda, said Jai Krishan Das, convener of the Dal.

Last winter, a campaign mobilised lakhs of people on the streets of Agra, Mathura, Vrindavan and Delhi to secure assurances from the union government.

Participants of the movement under the leadership of Barsana's spiritual guru Ramesh Baba have announced a march to Dwarka in Gujarat from where they will fan out to different parts of the country after Jan 15.

The movement will move towards southern India for three months and later to northern regions for three months, educating people and mobilising support ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The Yamuna Rakshak Dal leaders said both the central and state governments have forgotten the assurances given.

Drains continue to open into the Yamuna adding to the pollution in Delhi.

They said central government representatives had assured them that a parallel drain would be built along the river to divert untreated waste water but nothing has been done.

The Uttar Pradesh state government had also given an assurance that a pipeline would be laid from Vrindavan to Mathura and similarly in Agra, but no action has been taken, they said.