10 Nov : Welcoming the announcement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare Ganga as a "national river", Dwarka Sharadapithadhiswar Jagdguru Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswation on Monday demanded that the river be allowed to flow unimpeded by large dams.
"The announcement of the Prime Minister to declare the Ganga as ‘national river’ is one important step to save it. Now a movement would be launched at national-level for undisrupted flow of the Ganga," he said.
The Shankaracharya warned that the construction of large dams on Ganga will be "suicidal".The religious leader said he was was not against the development but the need of the hour was to construct small dams to generate electricity.
He said a movement has already started here under ‘Ganga Sewa Abhiyan’ for undisrupted flow of the Ganga.As the Tehri dam can not be demolished at this stage, the Bhagirathi, which later becomes the Ganga, should be allowed to flow unimpeded.
"We are not getting holy water of Ganga. Rather we are using the polluted water being discharged by factories and other sources," he said.The nearly 40 crore people who live in the Ganga basin getting polluted water, he said.
Asked about Sadhvi Pragya, arrested in connection with the 29th September Malegaon bomb blast, the Shankaracharya said that he had no idea about her. A pooja was also held last evening in his presence and 1.25 lakh ‘ladoos’ offered