After battling for his life for 42 days at the ICU in Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences (HIMS), Dehradun, the 35-year-old crusader for 'Save Ganga', Swami Nigamanand, died on Monday afternoon at 2.30 pm. The Swami was allegedly poisoned at a Haridwar district hospital by a section of land mafia for daring to oppose their activities.
Responding to the media queries about the Swami's death, Jairam Ramesh said he had sent a letter to Uttarakhand chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on January 6 last year, asking him to take steps to end illegal sand mining in the stretches of River Ganga at Haridwar. "I have spoken to the chief minister on a number of occasions that illegal mining is rampant in Uttarakhand... That illegal mining enjoys political patronage in the highest levels. Unfortunately, no action was coming from the state government over the last 15 or 16 months," he said. Read the full report here.
Source: D S Kunwar, TNN, New Delhi/Dehradun.
