Centre models Holy water sale after Gangajal 'industry'

Kolkata: The Kolkata neighbourhoods along the Hooghly are unimpressed by the Centre's "novel" idea of minting money by bottling, branding and selling the river's water through post offices.
For, hundreds of small-time entrepreneurs in these old Kolkata paras have known the money-spinning nature of the river's "holy waters" for quite some time as they have packaged the almost-opaque liquid into bottles, selling spirituality to thousands of Kolkatans who still find something divine in the visibly dirty water.
Branded 'Pabitra Gangajal', holy water from the Ganga is sold at every 'dashakarma bhandar' across the city or even roadside shacks along the Hooghly. Not only Gangajal, they also sell Ganga Mati (river clay), Baro Nadir jal (water of 12 rivers) and Sapta Samudrer Jal (water of seven seas).
"We were amused to read the news of the government decision to sell Gangajal in post offices. We have been doing the same for last 25 years," Sukanta Khan, one of the directors of DKB Products. The annual sale of Gangajal in his company goes beyond 10,000 cartons.
Not only in Kolkata, the product is exported to far-flung states like Rajasthan and Gujarat, besides neighbouring markets like Odisha and Assam.
Local shops hit upon the idea to sell Gangajal following repeated queries for Gangajal, which is a must in all Hindu rituals. "After getting requests, we started thinking that packaged Gangajal might have a market. We were a bit skeptical as the river is only half a km away. But it started selling well and gradually it picked up beyond our expectation. We started selling it to other Dashakarma stores and to other districts," said Supriyo Khan, another director of DKB Products.
Now, truckloads of cartons go to Assam and Odisha almost on a daily basis. "We have a big tank of 20,000 litres capacity. We bring Gangajal from Bagbazar ghat in tankers. Here, the mud of the turbid water is settled at the bottom of the tank. The water is then lifted to an overhead tank and bottled. Earlier, we filtered the water to make it crystal clear. But the sale dipped. We understood that people were failing to relate with clean Gangajal. So we stopped filtering it and it worked wonders," said Subrata Khan, another director.
"Of course, we are negligible compared to the Centre's massive plan. We neither have the capacity nor the distribution channel to match the government efforts. But the idea came to us long back. However, 10ml bottles are most popular as there's an idea that one drop of Gangajal in enough. Similarly, we introduced Gangamati and it also became an instant hit," said Sukanta Khan.