Source: Times of India
ALLAHABAD, INDIA, February 7, 2002: Resentment has been brewing amongst saints and devotees attending the Magh Mela over the rising levels of pollution in the Ganga. Reports said some sadhus of a particular sect refused to take a dip in the river, besides threatening legal action, if requisite action was not taken to clear the river of effluents. Tridandi Swami Rangra Manujacharya of Durvasa Ashram refrained from taking a dip in the river for the last two days while Hari Chaitanya Brahmachariji, Tikar Mafi, threatened to approach the courts with other sadhus, if the situation did not improve within next few days. Earlier, Tridandi Swami had called upon kalpvasis and sadhus for observing a day-long fast protesting the pollution and threatened to go on a relay fast. These decisions were taken at the sant sammelan at Laxmi Narain camp in Magh Mela area on Wednesday. In his address Swami Nishchalanandji, said that if the river had not at all existed, then what would have had been the fate of human beings, forbidding them to bathe or even irrigating their fields.