Mamata, Nitish Kumar skip PM's Ganga Council meeting

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar skipped the first meeting of the National Ganga Council (NGC), which was chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, at Kanpur on Saturday to review the progress of the 'Namami Gange' Projects.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his Uttarakhand counterpart Trivendra Singh Rawat were present at the meeting. Nitish sent his deputy Sushil Modi to take part in the meeting.

The prime minister also took a boat ride in the Ganga river to have an assessment of the condition of the ghats and the quality of the water.

Modi expressed satisfaction on the pace of the projects to clean the Ganga, sources said.

The prime minister slipped while climbing on the stairs at one of the ghats, sources said adding that he escaped unhurt.

For a change, there was enough water in the Ganga on Saturday to enable the PM to take a boat ride. The flow of the scores of nullahs of the town into the river had also halted.

Sources said that additional water was released into the river in view of the PM visit. The nullahs, that poured sewage of the town into the river, were also diverted.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav took potshots on Modi for inspecting what the former termed 'fake cleaning' of the ghats.

The SP workers also held a demonstration in the town to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and rising crimes against women in the country.