The Yamuna, a lifeline and heritage of Sri Krishna land (Braj Bhoomi), is not a topic of discussion in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Candidates from various political parties, as well as top leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who have been relentlessly campaigning in the Braj area, have ignored the demand to revitalise the dying river.
The ghats have either vanished or have been inundated with dirt and garbage. In Vrindavan, a road has been built carelessly right in front of the beautiful row of ghats. Mathura’s famous ghats are buried beneath debris and sludge from sewer waste.
For the past ten years, river activists in Agra, Mathura, and Vrindavan have worked tirelessly to demand the continuous discharge of freshwater into the Yamuna in order to keep the river alive. Several government agencies and non-governmental organisations have already declared the river to be a massive sewage canal.
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The Yamuna River in Agra supports and complements a half-dozen Mughal monuments, including the 17th-century white marble marvel, the Taj Mahal, but despite repeated warnings, the state government has failed to control pollution, tap hundreds of drains and Nala’s (drains), shift dhobi ghats, and restrain polluters who openly discharge industrial effluents in the river.
The prime minister promised to resurrect the Yamuna in 2013. Later, Nitin Gadkari promised on numerous occasions that ferry service between Delhi and Agra would be established for tourists, but not a single baby step has been taken. Though plans for a barrage have been announced on multiple occasions, once elected, they all forget their promises, Devashish Bhattacharya, an environmentalist, says
Hema Malini, a Mathura MP and film star, has pleaded with the government to clean up the Yamuna and release water from upstream barrages, but nothing has been done so far.
Despite the BrajTeerth Development Parishad, which was created by the Yogi Adityanath government, the overall condition of religious shrines in Mathura and Vrindavan has deteriorated.
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Braj Foundation chief Vineet Narain accuses the powers that be of destroying the soul of Braj Mandal.
The green patches, the holy kunds, the makeover of shrines, which the Braj Foundation had done so meticulously and with so much love and Bhakti, are all in a state of shambles, he says.
On numerous occasions, these gaps and flaws have been brought to the notice of the government but a wall of extreme insensitivity and apathy has prevented any remedial discourse or action, Narain added.
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