Amid the row over the water quality in Maha Kumbh 2025, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has rejected the report that said faecal bacteria present in water at many places at the Maha Kumbh did not meet the criteria of water fit for bathing.
The Chief Minister said that the water at the Sangam is “fit for drinking”. He also warned that making baseless allegations or circulating “fake videos” against Sanatan Dharma, “Maa Ganga, India or the Maha Kumbh” is like playing with the faith of the crores of people who have taken a holy dip at the ongoing Mela in Prayagraj. He also claimed that the report is a propaganda to malign Maha Kumbh after faecal bacteria report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Yogi Adityanath, addressing the UP assembly, also condemned people who spread misinformation against “Sanatana Dharma, Maa Ganga, and India.” He also slammed the opposition for politicising Maha Kumbh.
Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal on Wednesday rapped the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) and the Uttar Pradesh government for not submitting adequate details on faecal coliform and other water quality parameters, such as oxygen levels, in the river Ganga in Prayagraj.
According to a Indian Express report, the green court granted the state government a week to place on record the latest water quality analysis reports from different points of the river at the Maha Kumbh Mela site in Prayagraj.
A bench of NGT chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, judicial member Sudhir Agarwal, and expert member A Senthi Vel were hearing the matter on the compliance of a December order, wherein it had directed the UP government and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to ensure that water quality in rivers Ganga and Yamuna was fit to drink and bathe in during the Kumbh, Indian Express reported.
On Monday, the CPCB submitted a report which showed that faecal coliform and biochemical oxygen demand levels did not meet the bathing criteria during monitoring carried out in the second week of January. The court bench took the CPCB’s report on record on Monday and noted that the UPPCB did not file an action taken report in compliance with its December 23 order, Indian Express reported.
The CPCB report on water quality in the Ganga at Kumbh had said, “River water quality was not conforming with the primary water quality for bathing with respect to faecal coliform at all the monitored locations on various occasions. A huge number of people (are) taking a bath at Prayagraj during Maha Kumbh Mela in the river, including auspicious bathing days, which eventually leads to an increase in faecal concentration.”