The five-day Ganga Yatra under Namami Gange mission will kick off today from Bijnor and Ballia in Uttar Pradesh. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat and Union Minister Sanjeev Baliyan will launch the yatra from Bijnor, a place where Ganga enters Uttar Pradesh.

Governor Anandiben Patel, Union Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Modi will launch it from Ballia in eastern UP, where the holy river leave the state to enter Bihar.

Eight Union ministers and many UP ministers, incharge of the districts the yatra will pass through, will also participate.

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, DG, National Mission for clean Ganga told AIR that the aim of the yatra is to promote bio-diversity and to make the villages situated on the banks of the holy river more developed and prosperous.