Lucknow: While Varanasi is flooded with pilgrims in the holy month of Sawan, the boatmen at river Ganga are on strike. Opposing the plying of water taxis in Ganga, the boatmen on Wednesday stopped the movement of hi-tech cruises in the holy river. The cruise service was launched two years back by the Prime Minister to carry pilgrims for Ganga Aarti and to various Ghats. The agitated boatmen said that unless the administration withdraws the order of plying water taxis, they would not allow any movement of cruise or motorboat in the river Ganga.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav, too, has come out in support of boatmen and said that the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is snatching business from the poor people. Justifying the stir of boatmen he said that people will teach this government a lesson in the coming general elections.
It may be mentioned that the Varanasi Municipal Corporation has decided to launch water taxi service in river Ganga. The corporation has been saying that this service will help in easing traffic as it would carry the pilgrims from Ramnagar fort to Kashi Vishwanath temple gate through river Ganga. However, the traditional boatmen have been saying the plying of water taxis would harm their business. There are about 10,000 boatmen in Varanasi who have been ferrying tourists in river Ganga for several decades.
The leader of boatmen, Pramod Manjhi said that they would now launch their own cruise which would be cheaper and have more facilities than the one started by the administration. According to him the cruise service of Municipal Corporation charges ₹1,500 while the boatmen community will only take ₹400 for the same kind of ride. He said that the community will not allow plying of water taxis.
