Founder of Bharat Vikas Sangam K.N. Govindacharya has said that a 400-km long padayatra (foot march) spanning over 40 days would be launched from October 11 to highlight the need for cleaning and conservation of river Ganga.
Addressing press persons in Hubballi on Saturday, he said that the 400-km long padayatra would be held from Naroda to Kanpur along the banks of river Ganga and along with Bharat Vikas Sangam, Rashtriya Swabhiman Vedike and other organisations had joined hands in organising the event.
Mr. Govindacharya said that Kanpur had a prominent share in polluting Ganga river and so it had been decided to hold the foot march till Kanpur.
He said that river Ganga had self cleaning capacity, however, it was not being allowed to clean itself and instead more pollutants were being added to it. “The Union governemnt has said it has taken steps for cleaning river Ganga. The foot march is intended at inspecting the present status of the river and also how much cleaning has taken place. Along with it awareness also will be created among the general public about keeping the river clean and conservation of the holy river,” he said.
He said that the natural flow of the holy river had been obstructed at several places. “Only 15% of the river is being allowed to flow naturally while 15% is being used for drinking water and irrigation. This is not right from the point of view of keeping the river alive. Apart from cleanliness, prevention of deforestation, revival of water resources, chemical pesticide free farming are the other issues to be taken up during the foot march,” he said.
He said that his organisation was working with the objective of encouraging and developing indigenous thinking, eco-friendly development and decentralisation of development. Already the organisation had set up people’s parliament and conducted session and next was women parliament at Hrishikesh on October 8 and 9, he said. Director of KLE Scoiety Shankranna Munavalli, convenor of the organisation Chandrashekhar Dhavalagi were present.
