CM stresses on public initiative in Gomti cleaning
LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said efforts should be made to create awareness about the purity of water .
Dedicating the temple ‘Maa Shardalaya’ on the KGMU campus to people, the chief minister said, “Water is life it is said and rightly so, as we cannot survive long without water. The government is making efforts to make the Gomti clean and flowing forever, and people should cooperate.”
The statues of God Dhanvantari and Goddess Saraswati have been installed in the temple. The installation of the statue of Maa Sharda (Goddess Saraswati) and God Dhanvantari in KGMU is a matter of faith as well as environment, the chief minister said. He also planted a Rudraksha sapiing near the temple. The CM said that Basant Panchami is celebrated every year at KGMU. The idol of Saraswati is installed here every year and later, immersed in the River Gomti due to which the water of Gomti got polluted. Now, KGMU permanently installed the statue of Maa Sharda which benefits the river too, he added.
“The people of Lucknow should make efforts to keep the Gomti clean and perennially flowing. The government is making efforts at its level, people should also be aware of this so that we can bring Gomti to its old form,” he said.
Referring to the ‘Namami Gange’ project, the chief minister said that when he was visiting flood-ravaged areas along the Ganga, the NDRF personnel told him that till four years ago they used to get red rashes on their body while practised rescue operations in the river. But today, the Ganga has become clean because of which NDRF soldiers no longer contract any disease.
“About 140 MLD sewer used to fall in the River Ganga at Kanpur daily. No aquatic animals survived
because of this pollution. Our government closed this drain and diverted it to a sewage treatment plant from where the water was again diverted to the fields for irrigation. As a result, the Ganga has become clean in Kanpur today, now aquatic life is getting back to normal in there,” he said. The chief minister said that through the Swachh Bharat mission that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “launched a massive campaign of cleanliness and awareness. Just by maintaining cleanliness we have been able to bring down encephalitis cases – the disease which had become an epidemic in eastern Uttar Pradesh - by 56% and deaths down by 80%.”