ALLAHABAD: Agitated over high levels of pollution and shallow water in the holy Ganga, the Shankracharyas, seers and Dandi swamis, along with all the akaharas, are all set to repeat the feat of 2010 Mahakumbh of Hardwar — boycott the next 'Shahi Snan' on Mauni Amavasya scheduled for February 10.

These saints, on Friday, threatened that if the situation remained unchanged, they will not bathe in the next Shahi Snan. The alarming condition of the holy river, besides instigating saints to boycott the Shahi Snan, has become the poll plank for various political parties in the forthcoming general elections of 2014.

Downstream Portion Of River Highly Polluted

Lucknow: Hinting at the dangerous level of pollutants dissolved in the Gomti riverbed, UP Jal Nigam on Tuesday informed the Parliamentary Committee that around 37 million litres per day of untreated sewage is flowing into the river. Even though the official figures don’t ring an alarming bell at the moment, few LMC officials said the extent of untreated sewage flowing into the river is much more than what is being quoted by the Jal Nigam.

On the eve of the first ritual bath of Mahakumbh, which started over a week ago, a group of pilgrims from Bangalore spot a body in the Ganga where it meets the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.

“It was a grim sight ahead of the Mahakumbh. We looked the other way. What could we do?” said Santosh Lal, on her third Kumbh visit. Another body was fished out of the river at another spot the same day.

Lucknow: The illegal felling of trees is fast depriving Uttar Pradesh of its precious forest wealth. In 2012-13, trees worth Rs 1.4 crore have been illegally chopped off on the forest land. This is only the "reported" loss of timber and does not include unaccounted cases. On January 18, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav suspended 13 employees of forest department, including officers, for illegal felling of trees in Bahraich division.

Between March and December 2012, at least 40 forest employees were suspended for failing to check illegal cutting of trees. The government has been on a suspension overdrive against forest employees and the recent suspensions have added to the figures. The officers admit that it's for the first time that the lower-rung staff has faced the heat for timber theft in the state.

Kanpur: On the instructions of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, a second autopsy of the 31 blackbuck that were killed by stray dogs inside their enclosure in Kanpur zoo on the intervening night of Sa

Bidding terms allow the developers to utilise coal from these blocks in projects being set up under the now defunct MoU route

The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) would bid for the 17 coal blocks on offer by the Centre for the nine proposed thermal-power plants in the state. The bidding terms allow the developers to utilise coal from these blocks in projects being set up under the now defunct memorandum of understanding (MoU) route.

By going through the factors responsible for the failure of Ganga Action Plan (GAP), the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment and forests has doubts if the Prime

Sangam (Allahabad): Even as Shankracharyas, seers and Dandi swamis along with akharas have threatened to boycott the next ShahiSnan of MauniAmavasya on February 10 in view of the "poor health" of the Gnaga, Mela authorities on Saturday claimed that about 2,000 cusecs of water is being released from the Narora dam every day the Ganga.

Officials here maintained that the Ganga has enough water to take a holy dip and if the excessive water is being released into the river, there are chances that all the 19 temporary ghats will be washed away.

ALLAHABAD: Alarmed over the ever increasing level of pollution in the Ganga, especially in the backdrop of ongoing MahaKumbh and TOI publishing news on the deteriorating condition of the river, plu

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Sunday said it has installed a 100 kw solar power plant in Lucknow, which would help save 26,000 litres of diesel per year consumed to power its major routing centre.

“Bharti Airtel has installed a solar power plant at Gangaganj, Lucknow. This location is one of the major switching and routing centre, which processes the voice and data traffic for the telecom operator,” it said in a statement.