Latest News | BKU Workers Begin Jal Satyagraha on Yamuna Ghats in Prayagraj over Local Demands

Prayagraj (UP), Jun 24 (PTI) Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) workers launched a 'Jal Satyagraha' on a Yamuna ghat here on Monday to protest local issues, including the permission for sand mining on the riverbanks.

Workers of the BKU have launched the Jal Satyagraha with their 26-point demands, Anuj Singh, state president of the youth wing of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, said while speaking to reporters during the protest on Yamuna riverbank at Kanjasa in the Ghurpur area here.

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The protest involves sitting or standing in the water on the river bank.

Singh said the protest will continue until the union's demands are met.

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"Our main demands include giving lease of sand mining at the ghats of Yamuna river to Nishads and Mallahs and immediate solution of pending cases of farmers at the tehsil and district levels," he said.

He said the sand mining permission has badly affected the workers from the Yamunapar area and their families.

"Due to the district administration not opening the ghats here, the people here have reached the brink of starvation and they are somehow managing to arrange for two meals a day. This is the reason why the youth here are migrating to Delhi and Mumbai for employment," he said.

The protest also demands compensation for the house owners whose houses are being demolished by the Prayagraj Vikas Pradhikaran (Prayagraj Development Authority) in the name of road widening for Kumbh Mela, Singh said.

"Without giving compensation, Prayagraj Vikas Pradhikaran will not be allowed to proceed with acquiring of the land plots," he added.

"Similarly, an old Shanidev temple in Soraon tehsil has been occupied by goons for the last one -and-a-half years. We demand from the administration that the (illegal) occupants of the temple be vacated immediately," he said.

"Until our demands are met, we will continue our movement which will be intensified in the coming times," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)