Kolkata, Jan 10 (NIE): Magsaysay award winner and “waterman of India” Rajendra Singh on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to fulfil his promise of cleaning the Ganga. Speaking to reporters at the Calcutta Press Club, Singh said, “PM has not done anything what he promised. We wanted and he had promised a clean Ganga but that never happened. Its water is full of pollutants from the city.”
Singh was in Kolkata in connection with the Ganga Sadbhavna Yatra, which is aimed at creating awareness on the need to clean up the river.

“What Modi is doing now is a corporate-driven democracy. People were arrested for throwing flowers in the Ganga, whereas millions of tons of effluents from industries are dumped with impunity,” said Singh.

He said the Ganga had been sent to the ICU and that projects such as Namami Ganga were unable to clean the river. “In the name of rejuvenation of Ganga, only beautification of ghats is being done, while actual cleaning and continuity of Ganga is still a far dream,” he added.

The Yatra covered a distance of 2,500 km across Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand and Kolkata. During the 111-day journey, people and communities along the banks of the river were made aware of its importance.