Yogi Adityanath to Kick Off 5-day Ganga Yatra from Bijnor Today with Pomp and Vigour

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will kick off a five-day Ganga yatra under Namami Gange mission on Monday. The yatra will be launched from Bijnor, where the Ganga enters Uttar Pradesh, by CM Adityanath who will be accompanied by his Uttarakhand counterpart Trivendra Singh Rawat and Union minister Sanjeev Balyan.

Governor Anandiben Patel will flag it off from Ballia, where the holy river leaves the state and enters Bihar, on Tuesday. Bihar’s Deputy CM Sushil Modi will also be present for the occasion.

Meanwhile, eight Union ministers and state ministers in-charge of the districts the yatra will pass through will also participate.

On the first day of the Yatra, an initiative taken by the UP government to motivate people to work for a clean Ganga river and adopt organic farming, CM Adityanath is expected to reach Moradabad by air around 10:25am and head to Ganga Bairaj in Bijnor at 11am, following which he will perform a puja.

Adityanath will address a public gathering after the conclusion of rituals. The yatra is set to be flagged off around 1:30pm.

The guests for the occasion will be taken to the venue by both land and river routes. During the five days, Ganga rituals will be performed every day that will end with an “Aarti”, flower petals will be showered.

Public meetings will be organised in places like Rae Bareli — which is considered as a Congress stronghold and the parliamentary constituency of party chief Sonia Gandhi — Kannauj and Badaun, which are considered to be strongholds of the Samajwadi Party.

The UP government is also likely to prepare a documentary film on the first-ever Ganga Yatra of its kind. The film will then be shown to people in order to make them more aware of the holy river.

The Jal Shakti department has primarily shouldered the responsibility of organising the Ganga Yatra along with two dozen other departments.

The Yatra will also showcase the religious and cultural centers along the route to attract tourism to these places.

The security arrangements have been beefed up for the Yatra and personnel of Provincial Armed Constabulary and State Disaster Relief Fund will be deployed throughout the event.