By IANS,
Agra: “Flood again, Yamuna maiyya, (Mother Yamuna) and wash away all the garbage.” That was the special prayer hundreds of men, women and children gathered at the Yamuna here offered to the river ahead of the rainy season.
The congregation at Agra’s Yamuna Ghat Monday night lit lamps along the river banks and sang bhajans, an organiser of the special prayer meeting told IANS Tuesday.
“Vaishnavites and Yamuna devotees gathered in good numbers to light 5,551 lamps along the banks. They sang bhajans and offered ‘prasad’ to Yamuna maiyya, praying her to flow in full glory when the rains come like last year,” Bankey Lal Maheshwari, chief of the Sri Nathji Nishulk Jal Sewa, which organised the programme, said.
Shravan Kumar Singh, vice president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society, said the group mobilised a large number of people at the Yamuna Ghat for the event.
“A flood is not only a welcome sight, but it also helps clean up heaps of debris, garbage dumps and also dilutes the pollution in the river water,” Singh said.
Shishir Bhagat, president of Wake Up Agra group, said: “We wanted people to come to the river and see its pitiable condition. It has become a sewage canal.”
The city, suffering from severe water shortage, also saw at least a dozen groups Monday marching in protest towards the district collectorate and municipal corporation offices, demanding drinking water.