Now, get India Post to send Gangajal to your doorstep

FP Staff • July 12, 2016, 17:34:33 IST

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With the Ganga river polluted and murky in most parts where it flows in its later stages, demand for pure, unadulterated Gangajal was high.

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Now, get India Post to send Gangajal to your doorstep

Indians can now salvage their sins with just a quick visit to their nearest post office, thanks to the central government’s scheme of selling bottled holy Ganga water at post offices. And what more, the government plans to make it available right at your doorstep, once the supply-demand ratio stabilises. The Central government, on Sunday, launched a new scheme to enable devotees to take a ‘holy sip’ right at their doorsteps by enabling the sale of bottled Ganga jal from Rishikesh and Gangotri at all post offices. Options of home delivery are also available. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the scheme on Monday in Patna.

Minster of Law & Justice @rsprasad launches distribution of #GangaJal at #Patna through Post Offices. pic.twitter.com/iDFzbMVl7y
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) July 10, 2016

With the Ganga river polluted and murky in most parts where it flows in its later stages, the demand for pure and unadulterated Ganga jal is always high. A report in The Times of India said that post offices in Bengal received an overwhelming response as soon as the sale began. “We were sent five 200ml bottles of Ganga jal collected at Rishikesh. They sold out instantly. People left the counter cursing us,” the article quoted a Indian post official from Jalpaiguri as saying. According to the report, people came over from far-off places in the wee hours on Monday just to lay hands on the pious water first thing. Most left disappointed as the stocks vanished soon after it hit the shelves. Another report by The Times of India from Indore said that in the first leg, Ganga jal will be available only at select locations in Madhya Pradesh: Ujjain, Khandwa, Bhopal (TT Nagar post office), Lashkar and Jabalpur. Determined to cater to the cultural needs of the people, the government has ensured the bottles come with a seal of authenticity.Trust after all is foremost in religious matters. The packaging will be done at the source, Rishikesh and Gangotri, and distribution across the nation will be moderated by Delhi nodal office of the Indian Post, according to The Times of India. However, despite the overwhelming response, the scheme didn’t go down well with all segments. In a sarcastic overtone, Bihar chief minster Nitish Kumar told The Times of India that the central government seems to have decided that water flowing through the river Ganga in its Bihar stretch is not coming from Gangotri and Rishikesh, which is why it saw the need to sell some. Some people took to twitter, criticising the move to commercialise Ganga jal.