-PTI Noted environmentalist GD Agrawal, who is on "fast-unto-death" to press for cleaning up of river Ganga, was on Monday referred from BHU to AIIMS in New Delhi after his health deteriorated further. Also known as Swami Gyanswaroop Anand, Agrawal was recently transferred to the Sir Sundal Lal Hospital of Benaras Hindu University (BHU) from the district hospital after suffering a heart attack. He was taken to New Delhi on an air...

-The Hindu   PMO holds talks with Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh The Prime Minister's Office has asked Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh – better known as Waterman -- to re-consider his resignation from the National Ganga River Basin Authority. Mr. Singh and his Authority colleagues Ravi Chopra and R. H. Siddiqi had quit two days ago in protest against alleged indifference of the Central Government towards protection of the Ganga river. Mr. Singh has...

Three non-government members of a central body tasked with the Ganga’s clean-up have quit after accusing the government of “gross negligence” towards the river’s worsening condition. Magsaysay winner Rajendra Singh, Ravi Chopra and Rashid Hyatt Siddiqui have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who chairs the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), saying the body has been reduced to a “toothless tiger”. The committee has around 20 members, including senior officials and...

-The Business Standard Is river interlinking really worthwhile and viable? The Supreme Court’s startling directive to the Centre to set up a “special committee” to expedite river interlinking, which the Court declared was in the “national interest”, has caused the grandiose project to be, once again, closely examined. The idea has been fashionable in fits and starts; it was conceived as far back as the 1970s, and was promoted by the National...

‘It has become a toothless organisation, which hasmade no difference to neglect of the river' Claiming that the National Ganga River Basin Authority has become a toothless organisation which has made no change to the government's neglect of the national river, three of its non-governmental members have submitted their resignations to the Prime Minister, chairperson of the body. “In three years of the NGRBA's existence, we have only had two meetings,” said...