Demand for pollution-free Yamuna intensifies

Sants and activists here have become restive over the rising levels of pollution in Yamuna river and have threatened to intensify their stir if the government did not take action in this regard in a month.
Sant Fuldol Behari Das, the Mahant of All Inida Chatuh Sampraday, said he would wait for one month for the government to act on the matter after which he would meet the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"We shall meet the Prime Minister after a month and if need be, we shall intensify the stir," Das said.
Ruing about the adverse impact on environment caused by the pollution, patron of Rastriya Yamuna Raksha Manch, Sant Gyananad Maharaj has called for a notification to be issued for making the holy river pollution-free.

Sant Radha Kant Shastri stated that Sadhvi Ritambhara has been assured by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that something in this direction would be done shortly, and "we are waiting for a month".
However Sadhvi Ritambhara said, she was "unaware about the latest position in this direction".

The sants had taken out two 'padayatras' to Delhi over the issue, one two years before and another three months back, but they did not yield any positive results.
Gopeshwar Nath Chaturvedi, who had filed a PIL in Allahabad High Court in 1998 against the pollution in Yamuna, has knocked on the doors of the court again after a committee set up by it has turned out to be "defunct".

"In the beginning, everything ran smoothly and all the departments cooperated in letter and spirit as the committee formed by the court was regularly monitoring the situation. However, after the demise of senior council member and former Solicitor General A D Giri, about four years ago, the monitoring committee formed under him turned defunct," Chaturvedi lamented.
"False affidavits by Nagar Palikas of Mathura and Vrindaban, Mathura Vrindaban Development Authority, Pollution Control Board, Health department and police are being submitted in the High Court in the absence of the monitoring committee," he alleged,
He has requested the court to reconstitute the monitoring committee. However, his petition is yet to be taken up by the court.

During last Assembly elections campaigning, Akhilesh Yadav had declared that Yamuna would be made pollution free if his party came to power. However, nothing has been done in this regard since then.