Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Aug. 11(ANI): Hundreds of school students took part in a unique rally staged at Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi district, to motivate the local residents in keeping River Ganga clean, on Tuesday.
In recent years, non-stop inflow of untreated civic waste and industrial effluents has turned the water of Ganga into a polluted water body.
Although numerous action plans have been announced and millions of rupees spent, little has been done in implementing even one.
The aim of this mass rally, 'Ganga Aur Tiranga' (Ganga and the tricolour) was to demand equal respect for River Ganga, declared recently as the national river.
"The motive behind this rally is to request all the people of Varanasi to gather on the banks of River Ganga on August 15 so that together all of us can pay our respects to both our national flag and the National River," said Swami Avimukteshwaranand, Convenor of the 'Save Ganga Mission'.
"There are strict punishments for insulting the national flag but River Ganga is getting polluted every second. There is no such punishment against it," he added.
Other members of the forum were also present in large numbers to pep up the participant students from the city's Gopi Radha Balika Inter College.
Bubbling with spirit, the students in the rally, mostly girls, raised slogans 'Jai Gange Jai Jai Gange' as they walked through the main thoroughfares and streets of Varanasi.
"Ganga is our mother. Grown ups and other adults cannot maintain the river so we children have come together with a mission to clean the river. It is our duty to keep it clean," said Priyanka, a student of Gopi Radha Balika Inter College.
In 1996, the Supreme Court had banned the discharge of effluents from various tanneries factories located on its banks in Kanpur.
However, with one billion tonnes of waste being dumped into it everyday, the River Ganga, unfortunately, remains to be one of the most polluted rivers in the world. (ANI)
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