Following the orders of the district administration, the civic bodies have started the cleanliness drive in the city. Before other civic bodies like Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC), Mango Notified Area Committee (MNAC) and Jugsalai Municipality, Jusco embarked the cleaning process from Sunday. Jusco has engaged a workforce of 10 people at the Subernarekha ghat to clean the river banks from puja paraphernalia. Jusco has also deployed two Tata Ace to ferry the garbage and dispose it properly.
" We started with one ghat today as it was Sunday. The work will begin in full force from tomorrow," said Rajesh Rajan, spokesperson, Jusco.
Jusco will clean nine out of 15 ghats. The major one being Subernarekha ghat in Sakchi where immersion of 106 idols took place on Oct 23. The cleanliness drive that started today will continue for about a week making the banks and the river clean enough before Chhath Puja.
The East Singhbhum district administration had directed Jamshedpur's all the four urban bodies to clear all the 15 major ghats within 48 hours of Durga Puja idol immersion. JNAC, MNAC and Jugsalai Municipality are expected to start the cleaning from tomorrow.
like every past years this year too the Durga idol immersion has led to the pollution of even the few water bodies of the city, making the water hazardous for use. The experts have expressed their concern over the negligence. There are two major rivers of the city, river Subarnarekha and Kharkai and as these are located close to the town, most of the Durga idols have been immersed in these rivers. For some years now there is a growing awareness about the water pollution caused by the immersion of Durga idols made out of plaster of Paris, in natural water bodies such as lakes, rivers and the sea. Pollution is also caused by the waste generated by the non biodegradable accessories used during the worship.
“Immersion of idols, flowers and other material of religious significance lead to pollution and a lot of these things block the filters of the water treatment plants. Because the quantity of pollutants is so high,” noted a pollution board official.