Holding a protest for the last 17 months against illegal sand mining and pollution in Narmada river, a spiritual guru from Narsinghpur has threatened to hold Bhopal bandh and start a fast unto death if the government doesn’t act by July 30. Bhaiyaa ji, the spiritual guru, has already organised a bandh in 10 districts located on the river bank. He has already filed two PILs raising the issue of pollution in the river, reported TNN.
“After committing to work for the river conservation, the government has not acted. We have taken our fight for the river on the streets and now it’s time to intensify the fight,” he said.
He alleged “from CM to ministers and MLA, everybody is responsible for the plight of the river. They all are responsible for the illegal sand mining from the sacred river.”
Talking to a group of reporters here on Monday, Bhaiya ji said, “17 months back, I stopped eating grains. After July 30, I will give up taking water to save the river.”
He wondered why the chief minister is “silent” over the issue as hundreds of nullahs and tonnes of untreated sewage water is flowing down into river.
“Illegal sand mining is so rampant in the whole stretch of Narmada and those involved in it seem to be unstoppable. Besides sand mafia, liquor mafia has been active in the Narmada parikrama circle,” he alleged.
After his organisation Narmada Mission filed a public interest litigation in Jabalpur high court in 2013, he said, the government had filed an affidavit talking about Narmada water purification and conservation scheme by 2014, but no work has yet started. After another petition, the high court has sought explanation from the government about the work done in this direction.
He said the bandh called on the issue of Narmada river in cities of Jabalpur, Hoshangabad, Mandla, Dindori, Lakhnadaun and Chhindwara among others evoked “huge response”.
Sourced from TNN, Featured image courtesy: patrika.com
