Pradesh: Environmental engineer and
former IIT professor GD Agarwal, continuing
his fast unto death to save the Ganga river for
the 102nd day on Sunday, has now given up
water too, a close aide said.
Agarwal, 81, has been on fast in the Matr
Sadan Ashram of Haridwar in Uttarakhand. He
has been demanding that the government take
steps to save the Ganga river and its ecology,
and ensure that the flow of the river water is
uninterrupted.
"He is a noted scientist and has been fasting
so many days for saving the Ganga. It is so
shameful that the government has not even
bothered to reply to his letters," said Acharya
Jitender, a close aide of the environmentalist.
Jitender said Agarwal on September 19 wrote
to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Justice of
India P Sathasivam in this regard, but has not
yet heard from any of them.
Three members of the National Ganga River
Basin Authority - Rajendra Singh, Ravi Chopra
and Rashid Siddiqui - quit from the authority
Saturday over this and other issues.
Last year, Agarwal had called off his indefinite
fast following an assurance from the prime
minister that he would look into the matter.
A retired professor at the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) - Kanpur, Agarwal is unhappy
over the unsatisfactory and ineffective
functioning of the National Ganga River Basin
Authority (NGRBA), a central government-
constituted agency for cleaning the Ganga.
Besides, Agarwal has opposed the ongoing
construction of dams, barrages and tunnels on
the Ganga, which he says would totally
destroy the natural flow and quality of the
river water.
Agarwal was a founder-member and secretary
of the Central Pollution Control Board, the
country's premier anti-pollution authority,
and helped put together environmental
legislation in India. This is the fourth
indefinite period fast he has undertaken in the
last four years.
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