Kolkata's supply of Gangajal at India Post sells out in minutes

A day after Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Manoj Sinha on Sunday launched a new scheme that made the water from the Ganga available at all post offices across the country, residents of Kolkata finished stocks across the city in a single day.

The Times of India reported that Kolkata's share of 15 bottles vanished in seconds on Sunday as the batch that arrived in Bengal was bottled at Rishikesh, some 300 km downstream, which was much cleaner than the water of the same river along the banks of Hoogly.

"Every time one of us went to Kolkata, we'd bring back a bottle of Gangajal. But that water is dirty. Gangajal from Gangotri and Rishikesh is much clearer, and has its sanctity intact," Lopamudra Sanyal, a businesswoman, told TOI.

The report added that the entire state got only 280 bottles of 500ml and 245 bottles of 200ml.

With the demand for the water so high, many officials have no idea about when the next batch of bottles would arrive.