A step that was missed, December 14th Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Atal Ghat in Kanpur to examine the purity of River Ganga under the Namami Gange Project. While climbing the stairs of Atal Ghat, PM Modi missed a step, plunged and fell on the stairs. The odd stair is ninth of the third ramp is now being repaired because they are uneven and often cause people to trip.
The uneven steps
A few days ago, during his visit to Kanpur for the ‘Namami Gange’ project meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had plunged and fell on these stairs but was helped in time by the on-duty SPG men. The video of Modi missing the steps went viral on social media like a wildfire.
The Atal Ghat project was administered under the Namami Gange program by the Engineers India Limited. After this incident, the faulty stairs were decided to reconstructed to prevent accidents as the height of the stairs was uneven and caused visitors to tumble.
PM #Modi falls down the stairs in at Atal ghat in U.P's Kanpur.
He fell down on the stairs of #AtalGhat after he returned to the shore after taking a boat ride scheduled to inspect the cleanliness of the river #Ganga under the #NamamiGange Project. pic.twitter.com/UjvqVn6DYi
— Sunil (@TweetsOfSunil) December 14, 2019
A request from the devotees
Engineers India Limited representative Tanveer said, “If asked, we will get it demolished and build a new staircase at the Atal Ghat. When the construction work was on at the Atal Ghat, some devotees, who used to perform ‘aarti’ there, had requested us to provide some space between the stairs so that they could sit and offer prayers.”
Since the stairs at the Ghat were already built, it was decided to alter the height of two stairs in 30 square feet area on the upper side of Ghat and create some space for the visitors to sit.
Divisional Commissioner Sudhir M. Bobde said: “Only one step of the staircase, which is uneven in height, will be demolished and reconstructed to align it with other steps. In fact, several visitors have tripped on this step and, therefore, it has to be repaired at the earliest.”
