Save Ganga activist Swami Agarwal, 80, ends fast in Delhi

New Delhi:  An 80-year-old environmentalist who has been on a hunger strike since January 14 has ended his fast today.  GD Agarwal was hospitalized in Delhi on Monday.  He has been campaigning for years for a better government effort to clean up the Ganga.
Senior ministers V Narayanasamy and Sriprakash Jaiswal met him at Delhi's AIIMS hospital earlier today, and agreed to most of his demands.  Swami Agarwal, as he is known, has in the past worked as a scientist at IIT Kanpur.
He was brought to Delhi on Monday from Varanasi after his health deteriorated.   He stopped drinking water on March 9.
The Save Ganga activist has been unhappy with the ineffective functioning of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), a body set up by the central government for cleaning the Ganga.  He has said the government has failed to check the dumping of urban and industrial waste in the river.  

The activist is also opposed to the construction of dams and barrages on the Ganga; he says these will destroy the natural flow and quality of the river water.

Gandhian Anna Hazare wrote on Thursday to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to address the points raised by Swami Agarwal.

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