Seer demands ban on quarrying, threatens fast

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, November 17

Matra Sadan Ashram founder and Ganga crusader Swami Shivanand Saraswati today threatened to stage a fast unto death if illegal quarrying on the Ganga riverbed in the district was not prohibited within a week.

Swami Shivanand said At Jagjeetpur village-based Matra Sadan Ashram here today that he had written to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice and Governor KK Paul in this regard.

“If total prohibition on quarrying is not implemented within a week, I will stage an indefinite fast and will not eat anything. Matra Sadan inmates have apprised the state government and the district administration about the ill-effects of illegal quarrying going on in the district, particulary on the Ganga riverbed, but no stern action has been taken,” said Swami Shivanand, who has staged several agitations for the cause of the Ganga and environment conservation in the recent past.

Swami Shivanand, citing the National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders and some scientific surveys, said no kind of quarrying could be done on the Ganga and particularly in the Kumbh Mela land periphery but it was still going on.

Notably, Swami Shivanand’s disciple Brahmachari Atmabodhanand is already on agitation for almost two weeks demanding a prohibition on quarrying and shifting of stone crushers at least 5 km away from the Ganga river periphery.