'Meghdoot' in Bhagirath incarnation, brings Gangajal to Assam

GUWAHATI, August 5: Ganjajal in door step! Yes, it’s now available in Guwahati in two packs – 200 ml and 500 ml – and in two varieties – one collected from Gongotri and the other from Hrishikesh. One just needs to throng Meghdoot Bhawan in Guwahati to get it.  

The credit for this goes to the NDA Government at the Centre. It was king Bhagirath, according to Hindu scriptures, who had brought the Holy Ganga to the earth from the Heaven. This was why the Ganga had also been christened as Bhagirathi, behind the name of Her fetcher. With Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Manoj Sinha launching the new scheme that makes ‘Gangajal’ available at all post offices enabling Indian Post to deliver it to people’s doorstep recently, Meghdoot Bhawan in Guwahati missed no chance to do a Bhagirath, by making Gangajal available in Assam. The Hindus all over the world consider the Ganga (Ganges) as holy and mother. Bathing in the Ganga is taken as ablution, and sprinkling of Ganga water (Gangajal) is an age-old method used in sanctification by the Hindus.

Gangajal is being sold in Assam through postal shopping from the General Post Office at Meghdoot Bhawan in Guwahati and seven of the 19 head post offices of the State.

Talking to this reporter, Chief Post Master General (CPMG), Assam Circle BB Dave and DPS, Assam Circle Riju Ganguli said: “We’ve postal shopping. We sell Gangjal through our postal shopping system from the GPO and seven of the 19 head post offices in the State. We get two varieties of Gangajal based on their sources of collection. The variety collected from Gongotri is of higher price than the one collected from Hrishikesh. Both the varieties are available in two packs – 200 ml and 500 ml. A 200 ml pack of Gangajal from Gongotri costs Rs 25 and the 500 ml pack costs Rs 35 against Rs 15 and Rs 22 respectively of the Hrishikesh variety.”

According Dave and Ganguli, though the sale is yet to pick up, so far around 200 packs have been sold from Meghdoot Bhavan, and ten packs of each of the two samples have been sent to seven other post offices in the State.

Gangajal is supplied by the Uttarakhand postal circle, packaged in Delhi and distributed to other circles across the country. For now, the Department of Posts has decided to give the scheme a run-time of 5-6 months, before reviewing the outcome and making changes, if required. Plans are afoot to sell Gangajal online, speed post and through postmen.