THANKING Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for scraping two hydro power projects on the Bhagirathi and also for deciding to declare the 135-km stretch between Gomukh and Uttarkashi as an eco-sensitive zone under the Environmental Protection Act and not to allow any developmental project in the zone, VHP president Shri Ashok Singhal urged him to save Mandakini and Alaknanda rivers also. He also urged him to confer the status of ‘national heritage’ on the Ganga. “Since Bhagirathi, Mandakini and Alaknanda combine together to form the Ganga, the Ganga cannot be saved unless these three rivers are saved together,” said Shri Singhal in a letter written to Prime Minister who is also chairman of National Ganga River Basin Authority, on August 21. “We therefore request you to kindly make an uncompromising move to replicate the Bhagirathi example in the cases of Mandakini and Alaknanda as well so that the perennial river Ganga is kept intact to consolidate, enrich and bless our future generations. We also request you to confer the National Heritage status on the Ganga,” Shri Singhal added in the letter. (FOC)
