Dirty river mocks PM’s clarion call for ‘Clean India’
It will take some time before people give up the habit of littering and leaving things behind on riverbanks and public parks. This old habit was amply manifested on Yamuna riverbanks after the idols of Goddess Durga were immersed. Broken earthen pots, rotting flowers, tattered pieces of cloth and sodden coloured paper littered the banks of the Yamuna on Sunday, a day after hundreds of idols of Durga were immersed into the already polluted river to mark the end of Durga Puja in the Capital.
The ugly sight on Yamuna ghats seemed to mock Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan that aims to create a ‘Clean India’ in the next five years and was launched October 2 with much fanfare all over the country.
A visit to one of the ghats revealed the utter disregard to the appeals made by the Prime Minister as part of the Clean India campaign as mounds of garbage covered the banks of the river. A large quantity of insoluble waste like wood, plastic, and toxic material floated in the river while empty packets of crisps, biscuits and plastic bottles were strewn around the bank. There was foul stench in the river while hordes of stray dogs sniffed the garbage piles for sweets and food.
“The filth will remain here for at least a few days before the ghats are cleaned,” Jamna Singh, a 17-year-old boatman at the Kalindi Kunj riverbank, one of the six spots where the authorities had permitted idol immersion, said. “It’s the same story every year and people continue to immerse plastic and other non-toxic materials along with the idols in the river,” added Singh’s friend Devendra.
As per estimates, at least 200 idols of Durga are immersed in the Yamuna every year at Kalindi Kunj and at the other five spots — Shyam Ghat, Hathi Ghat, Geeta Ghat and ghats near Geeta Colony, Mayur Vihar — where at least 760 registered idols are immersed. The Yamuna meets nearly 70 per cent of Delhi’s water needs. Over the past two decades, nearly Rs 1,500 crore was spent on cleaning it up. Despite that, however, the river continues to run polluted.
According to Samrat Banerjee of Durgotsab, GK-II, all the organised puja committees in Delhi are registered with the two Joint Procession Committees (JPCs) who in turn are responsible for cleaning the Geeta Ghat and Kalindi Kunj before and after the immersions. But it’s the unorganised puja committees that are to be blamed for the pollution. “All the registered puja committees use ecofriendly paints and materials in their idols. We too make sure to clean the ghats before and after the idols are immersed,” Banerjee said.
“We have to get clearances from the Fire Department, Police and MCD but the unorganised committees are popping all over the city every year and there’s no check on them. They are the ones who pollute the river the most,” he added. Environment health researcher Gopal Krishna agreed with Banerjee’s suggestion of streamlining the unorganised puja committees but added that political will was needed to strictly enforce laws to protect the environment that are already in place.
“The rivers should not be used to immerse idols and religious material even if they are non-toxic and ecofriendly. But governments, afraid of hurting religious sentiments don’t enforce such guidelines that are already in place,” Krishna, who works with Toxic Watch, said. “We need strong political will if we want to save our rivers,” he added. Otherwise, the ‘Clean India’ campaign would merely remain a photo-op for leaders without any substantive gains for society or country.