There is stink in Big B’s tale of Somnath beach

But if one were to come to Somnath now,he would find the surroundings very contrary to the claims being made in the advertisement. The beach is not fragrant,but sticks of untreated sewage discharged from the Prabhas Patan town,the seat of Somnath Temple.

Visitors have to take only 20 steps from the main entrance of the temple to reach the beach. But the first thing that draws their attention is the big open mouth of the drainage pipeline that discharges effluents into the sea. In effect,visitors have to tread over a stream of sewage to reach out to the sea.

“It’s wide,open and very disgusting. I thought of enjoying sunrise at the temple premises,but the open gutter on the beach is a big spoiler,” said Sunder Kumar,a tourist from UP.

Prabhas Patan is part of Veraval Nagarpalika (municipality). Ever since it came into existence in 1965,the twin towns of Veraval and Somanth (as Prabhas Patan is popularly known),have been waiting for an underground drainage system. Somanth has a population of around 30,000.

Earlier,the pipeline used to end within the temple premises and often the temple would get flooded with sewage water.

Six years ago,following a grant from the then trust chairman and Rajya Sabha member Keshubhai Patel,and Junagadh MP Suryakant Acharya,the end of pipeline was shifted to the beach. But till date,the nagarpalika is yet to come out with a permanent solution for waste disposal.

Veraval nagarpalika Chief Executive Officer Ashwin Vyas said: “We are in the process to make plans for an underground drainage system. It will take another one to one-and-a-half year before we can start with it.”

He admitted that sewage water was being released on the beach,however,adding: “There is no underground drainage system or a treatment plant. We have no choice but to release sewage on the beach.”

Incidentally,Somnath is on the state government’s list of places to be refurbished as a major tourist-cum religious destination.

Besides,the temple trust doesn’t face any dearth of funds — the temple is gold plated and Chief Minister Narendra Modi is the chairman of the trust.