The Kolkata Municipal Corporation launched an awareness drive to keep the Ganges clean. Mayor Firhad Hakim today kicked off the Ganga Utsav drive urging citizens to keep the river clean.

For the last few days, the mayor has been holding various programmes to give the message of maintaining cleanliness of the river among the citizens of Kolkata. Yesterday Mr Hakim, led an awareness programme at Prasannamayee Ghat in ward 82 urging people to preserve the sanctity of the river. He also urged the devotees offering puja during Ganga Aarti or other occasions at the river not to throw garbage in the Ganga. As informed by the mayor, some of the organisations have also held pujas to keep the river clean. The civic body is also planning to do shooting and make videos of the river for carrying out a campaign on social media.

As mentioned by Mr Hakim, the Ganges is also changing its course over the last few years. Some of the ghats like the Nimtala Ghat are getting eroded and are said to have reached a dangerous point. During immersion of idols, this Durga Puja, the civic body had even barricaded a portion of the Nimtala Ghat sensing danger. Mayor Firhad, other senior officials of the KMC and Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port had inspected Baje Kadamtala Ghat to take note of the situation. The city port that looks after the maintenance of the city ghats is said to be preparing a detailed project report on measures to prevent the erosion.

Reiterating the massive erosion of Nimtala Ghat during the launching of Ganga Utsav at Princep Ghat today, Mr Hakim said, “There is a dredging problem here. From Nimtala to Falta, ghats are getting eroded while on the Bally side of Howrah, siltation is taking place and the river is changing its course. This needs to be addressed immediately by the central government through the port or other agency.”

Mr Hakim also asserted that dredging is needed from Kolkata to Gangasagar or till Haldia. The mayor however, claimed that this huge dredging work is not possible on the part of the state government alone. “A lot needs to be done and a lot of planning is required, related to the Ganges. The central government should come forward in a big way on the subject,” he said.

The mayor also claimed that the state government has spent Rs 25 crore on dredging from its funds. As informed by the mayor, the state government carried out dredging at a stretch of 10 kilometers of Adi Ganga.