Har-ki-Pauri goes without an 'aarti'

LUCKNOW: It came as a spoiler for thousands of devotees who came to offer aarti to the river Ganga before Diwali.
Har-ki-Pauri in Hardwar went dry for three consecutive days. This drove away several devotees and tourists from the city in a blow to the tourism and hotel industry.
The Mayapuri canal, which supplies 13,000 cusecs of water to Har-Ki-Pauri, was closed on October 22 night.Sources from Hardwar told The Times of India that the water level went down by over two feet due to stoppage of supply from the Mayapuri canal.
The canal branches out from the main Ganga canal near Bheemgowda, Hardwar. The canal will remain closed till November 11 for annual cleaning, said principal civil engineer Brij Mohan Arora.
Water to Hardwar and Har-Ki-Pauri is supplied by the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department in consultation with the Ganga Sabha, a charitable organisation.
On earlier occasions when the canal was closed for repair, care was taken that water supply to Har-Ki-Pauri and Brahma Kund remained uninterrupted. But this time the arrangement went awry as the canal had to be closed for a longer period.
The neighbouring state, said sources, did not make any arrangements for water, probably on the assumption that the canal would be activated in a couple of days.
However, the 150-year-old Mayapuri canal needed closure for a longer period for repair work, said another irrigation department official.
However, when 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.
Har-Ki-Pauri also gets "unrestricted" water supply from the main Ganga canal.
The canal supplied around 500 cusecs of water but was unable to maintain uninterrupted supply as it meets the requirements of Delhi also, said an official.
The closure of the canal, said the official, also hit supply in areas around Dhanauri. This area required around 250 cusecs of water. Blame for this crisis lies on the Uttaranchal government which did not make an alternative arrangement, he said.