Probe on. More than 100 bodies in Ganges leave administration speech less

“I have asked for a report from the District Magistrate of Unnao. I have also asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to send me more inputs as to what may have led to this incident,” India’s Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti said

More than 100 decaying bodies have been found in a tributary of the Ganges river in northern India. Authorities said they believed that the deceased were given water burials, although a police investigation has been ordered.Water burials are sometimes used when families cannot afford a cremation. Thirty bodies were recovered from the river in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh state on Tuesday.By Wednesday, a total of 104 bodies had been found.

Senior district official Saryu Prasad said efforts were under way to DNA test the bodies and identify them. “The waters in the river have receded, because of which the bodies may have surfaced,” Prasad told media in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party has vowed to clean up the notoriously polluted river, India’s most sacred waterway.Green campaigners have been demanding an end to water burials in the Ganges.

Volunteers of the Ganga Bachao Andolan (Save Ganges Movement) began a sit-in protest against the dumping of the dead in the river.

Uma Bharti  also said that this incident is a serious one when it comes to the ‘Clean Ganga mission’. When asked about the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) directive to impose Rs 5,000 fine for throwing religious offerings in the Yamuna, she said the pollution of river Yamuna is a case of concern. The NGT had earlier  passed a slew of directions including a fine of Rs 5,000 on individuals spotted throwing waste or religious items in the river as it unveiled a plan for its restoration.