A dozen villages in Bijnor held a panchayat on Wednesday against indiscriminate sand mining in their area because of which Ganga is gradually changing its course and moving towards the inhabited areas. More than 1,000 villagers threatened a massive agitation if the state government did not take concrete steps to stop illegal sand mining in the area.

Villages alleged that the river is now flowing at an alarming distance from them due to exhaustive sand mining being carried out allegedly by contractors who were tasked to clean up the river.

After villagers held protests and pelted stones at the contractor's men on Monday, an FIR was lodged against eight villagers...........Read more

Source web page: Times of India