‘All ghats in Kashi will get facelift’
Chief secretary Alok Ranjan inspected ghats on the second day of his visit to Varanasi Saturday. Ranjan along with district magistrate Pranjal Yadav and other officials went to the Harishchandra and its adjoining ghats to take stock of the cleaning work there.
He also inspected the Assi ghat and attended Subah-eBanaras function there. During the inspection, the DM apprised the chief secretary of the sanitation drives at the ghats as part of the PM’s ‘Clean India’ campaign. Ranjan also took a boat ride on the Ganga to inspect the ghats.
“All ghats will be given a facelift and proper sanitation will be ensured there,” said Ranjan. There are 84 ghats in Varanasi. For tourists coming to the city, ghats are a major attraction. Under the Clean India campaign, the union government has selected several cities including Varanasi for restoration of ghats.
Later, Ranjan along with his wife visited Kashi Vishwanath temple and performed Rudrabhishek of lord Shiva there.
TORTOISE SANCTUARY MUST BE DENOTIFIED TO SAVE GHATS: CS
Chief secretary Alok Ranjan on Saturday said immediate steps must be taken to denotify the tortoise sanctuary in order to save the historic ghats of Kashi from further deterioration. The chief secretary, who was on a two-day visit to Varanasi to review progress of various projects under way in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, made his observation while taking a boat ride to inspect the ghats.
At present, accumulation of sand on the other bank of the Ganga (opposite the ghats) increases the water pressure on the ghats and leads to their erosion.
Once the tortoise sanctuary is denotified, sand mining can be allowed on the other bank thus preventing the accumulation of sand, increased water pressure and the erosion of the ghats.