Yogi hits back at Mamata, trashes reports of Ganga waters being unfit for bathing

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday hit back at West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee over latter’s reported remarks terming the ‘Maha Kumbh’ as ‘Mrityu-Kumbh’ and also trashed reports that the Ganga water was not fit for bathing terming it as ‘disinformation’ by the opposition.

Speaking in the state assembly, Adityanath also said that those spreading rumours and ‘disinformation’ about the presence of faecal bacteria above permissible limits in the Sangam water, were in fact hurting the sentiments of the followers of Sanatan Dharma.

‘’To call Maha Kumbh Mrityu Kumbh is playing with the sentiments of 56 crore people, who have so far taken holy dip at the sangam,’’ he said. ‘’The water at the sangam is clean and fit for bathing...the opposition is indulging in disinformation that it has faecal bacteria,’’ the chief minister added.

The CPCB, in a report, said that the water at the sangam had faecal bacteria above the permissible limits at several places and was not fit for bathing.

Adityanath slammed what he termed ‘politicising’ the death of 30 devotees in the stampede at the Maha Kumbh on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya last month.

He also decried the reported remarks of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who had said that thousands were killed in the Maha Kumbh stampede, and RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav, who had termed the Maha Kumbh as ‘phaltoo’ (useless).

Adityanath said that if following the Sanatan culture was a crime then he would do it thousand times and recited an Urdu couplet to target the opposition for criticising the arrangements at the Maha Kumbh.

While the BJP leaders attacked Mamata for her remarks, Shankaracharya of Jyotishpeeth Swami Avimukteshwaranand also said that the arrangements in the Maha Kumbh were below par. He said that there were traffic jams running into hundreds of kilometres and the devotees had to walk for several kilometres to reach the sangam.