<p>Environmentalist G.D. Agarwal, 80, who is on a fast-unto-death since Jan 15 to save the Ganga river, Friday agreed to end his fast after the government agreed to his demands, his supporters said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"He will break his fast today (Friday) as we got a communiqué from the government accepting our demands," Tarun Agarwal, G.D. Agarwal's nephew, told IANS.<br /><br />He said Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy will meet the 80-year-old activist Friday afternoon at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where he was shifted from Varanasi Monday.<br />Agarwal had stopped taking water from March 9.<br /><br />A former Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) professor, Agarwal is unhappy over unsatisfactory and ineffective functioning of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), a central government constituted body for cleaning the Ganga. <br /><br />Besides, Agarwal is against ongoing construction of dams/barrages/tunnels on Ganga which he says would totally destroy the natural flow and quality of the river water; the "total failure" of regulatory agencies in controlling discharge of urban and industrial wastes into the Ganga and "complete lack of sensitivity" of the government on these issues.<br /><br />Anna Hazare Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to immediately call a meeting of the NGRBA in the wake of the deteriorating condition of Agarwal.<br /><br />Agarwal has served as secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board, the country's premier anti-pollution body, and helped put together environmental legislation in India. This is his third fast-unto-death in the last four years.</p>
<p>Environmentalist G.D. Agarwal, 80, who is on a fast-unto-death since Jan 15 to save the Ganga river, Friday agreed to end his fast after the government agreed to his demands, his supporters said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"He will break his fast today (Friday) as we got a communiqué from the government accepting our demands," Tarun Agarwal, G.D. Agarwal's nephew, told IANS.<br /><br />He said Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy will meet the 80-year-old activist Friday afternoon at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where he was shifted from Varanasi Monday.<br />Agarwal had stopped taking water from March 9.<br /><br />A former Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) professor, Agarwal is unhappy over unsatisfactory and ineffective functioning of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), a central government constituted body for cleaning the Ganga. <br /><br />Besides, Agarwal is against ongoing construction of dams/barrages/tunnels on Ganga which he says would totally destroy the natural flow and quality of the river water; the "total failure" of regulatory agencies in controlling discharge of urban and industrial wastes into the Ganga and "complete lack of sensitivity" of the government on these issues.<br /><br />Anna Hazare Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to immediately call a meeting of the NGRBA in the wake of the deteriorating condition of Agarwal.<br /><br />Agarwal has served as secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board, the country's premier anti-pollution body, and helped put together environmental legislation in India. This is his third fast-unto-death in the last four years.</p>