They poured sand over their bodies and sprinkled and splashed to the amusement of a big crowd. Some pretended to swim on the dry river bed, while a few others enacted a drowning scene.

A volunteers of the River Connect Campaign told PTI, 

“Since there was no water in the river but just industry effluents, sewer and municipal waste, we had to take a bath with the sand to protest and draw attention to the deplorable state of the river.”

Sunday is Ganga Dussehra when lakhs of people will take a holy dip in the rivers, particularly Yamuna and Ganga.

The River Connect Campaigners have demanded a national river policy and constitution of a central rivers authority on the lines of NHAI.

The campaign has been continuing for more than two years at the Etmauddaula view point park where a group daily holds a meeting and conducts the ritualistic arti of Yamuna.