Uttar Pradesh police personnel have launched a unique mass awareness drive on the need to protect and conserve the holy River Ganga in Prayag (Allahabad) one of the holy towns of India.
Inspired by the move, several voluntary organisations and government departments participated in the 'Save Ganga Campaign' and took up the responsibility of cleaning the banks of floating waste and polluting items.
Speaking to the media persons, Deputy Inspector General of Allahabad Range, Chandra Prakash, said that the police personnel under his wing have a taken lead in this campaign hoping the rest of the society would follow suit.
"The aim behind organising this campaign is to convey the message that the River Ganga is our national heritage and it is our responsibility to invoke the commoners towards its protection and conservation," Prakash said.
In recent years, non-stop inflow of untreated civic waste and industrial effluents has turned the water of the holy river 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 Government has planned to end discharge of untreated waste into the Ganga by 2020.
Though the Union Government enacted Ganga Action Plan in 1985 to clean the river, much of the action seems to have confined to papers.
However, with one billion tonnes of waste being dumped into it everyday, the River Ganga, unfortunately, remains one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
