Rahul Gandhi targets govt over Namami Gange chief's admission that bodies dumped in rivers in 2nd wave

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday took a dig at Centre after Ganga mission chief and and the head of Namami Gange Rajiv Ranjan Mishra admitted that bodies were dumped along the banks of Ganga during Covid second wave between April and May.

Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and wrote, 'truth of pain of Covid victims bodies flowing in Gange cannot be hidden.' Gandhi also said that compensating the victims families would be first step towards justice.

The book, titled Ganga: Reimagining, Rejuvenating, Reconnecting, authored by Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, the director general of National Mission for Clean Ganga and head of Namami Gange, and Puskal Upadhyay, an IDAS officer who has worked with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), mentioned that the problem was restricted to only Uttar Pradesh.

“As the number of bodies swelled and multiplied because of the Covid-19 pandemic, overwhelming district administrations and stretching the functional limits of crematoria and burning ghats of UP and Bihar, the Ganga became an easy dumping ground for the dead,” reads a section of the book, titled “Floating Corpses: A River Defiled”.

However, the authors rejected media reports that said over 1,000 bodies were dumped, and claimed that the number was not more than 300.

“After reading the reports of various district magistrates and panchayat committees, I realized that the number of bodies dumped into the river was no more than 300 (definitely not the 1,000 plus reported by a section of the media),” read a portion of the book.

He added that the problem was between Kannauj and Baliya. “…the bodies found in Bihar were also those floating from UP,” wrote the authors.

A 1987-batch Telangana-cadre IAS officer Rajiv Ranjan Mishra has served the NMCG in various capacities for over five years during two stints and is set to retire on December 31, 2021. The book was launched on Thursday by Bibek Debroy, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.

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