When Har-ki-Pauri went without 'aarti'

LUCKNOW: Thousands of devotees who thronged Har-ki-Pauri in Hardwar to offer aarti to Ganga before Diwali were disappointed to find the religious centre without water for three consecutive days. The unprecedented situation began from the night of October 22-23, when the Mayapuri canal which supplies 13,000 cusecs of water to Harki-Pauri suddenly went dry.Har-ki-Pauri also gets "unrestricted" water supply from main Ganga canal. Even this "unrestricted" supply is regulated by UP's irrigation department. Sources from Hardwar told this correspondent that water level at Har-ki-Pauri went down by over two feet due to stoppage of supply from the Mayapuri canal. This drove lakhs of devotees and tourists away from this town, inflicting a blow to tourism and hotel industry, said the sources. This canal branches out from the main Ganga canal near Bheemgowda, Hardwar. The canal was closed on the night of October 22 and will remain so till November 11 for annual cleaning, principal engineer, civil, Brij Mohan Arora told The Times of India on Thursday. On earlier occasions whenever the canal was closed for repair, care was taken so that water supply to Har-ki-Pauri and Brahma Kund remained uninterrupted. But this time the arrangement went awry because of longer closure. The water to Hardwar and Har-ki-Pauri is being supplied by Uttar Pradesh in consultation with the Ganga Sabha, a charitable organisation. Since the British days, the water to these religious places is supplied in consultation with the Sabha. Under an agreement any alternative work arrangement should be approved by it, said Arora. The neighbouring state, said sources, did not make any arrangements for water probably on the assumption the canal would be activated in a couple of days but this did not happen this time. The 150-yearold Mayapuri canal needed closure for longer period for repair works, said another irrigation department official preferring anonymity. When finally the news of the stoppage of water supply reached the irrigation department's headquarters in Lucknow, the main Ganga canal came to the rescue of Har-ki-Pauri and Brahma Kund. It supplied around 500 cusecs of water to Har-ki -Pauri. Since this barrage also had to meet the requirement of Delhi, it could not make an uninterrupted supply to the region, said the official. The closure of the canal, said the official, also hit the supply in areas around Dhanauri. This area required around 250 cusecs of water. This caused some problem and there was a huge cry for water, the official admitted. But the onus of this crisis lies with the Uttaranchal government which did not make an alternative arrangement for water supply, he said, adding that it isthe UP government which is under an obligation to make uninterrupted supply of water.