Till now, end of a religious festival has been marked with junked offerings floating in water bodies of the city. This forced authorities to launch repetitive cleanliness drive, but without much to show for it.
“Usually, there is a bulk of junked offerings, along with the idols when they are brought for immersion. This bulk is most responsible for making water bodies look unclean when dumped in it. And the process goes on as the festivals round the year generate waste around the year too, all of which is dumped in water bodies,” said RMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Ram lakhan Gupta.
Now, to break this endless cycle of defiling and cleaning, Ranchi Municipal Corporation is constructing small water pits near ponds within the city, where devotees can immerse the worship materials instead of dumping them in water bodies.
“A total of four such water pits are being dug on a trial basis, near major water bodies of the city where religious rituals are performed. This includes Ranchi lake, line Tank and Karam Toli and one more. Devotees congregating at these water bodies during Chhath Puja and Kali Puja will have to immerse the items for rituals in this pit instead of throwing them in the water body,” informed RMC PRO Naresh Kumar Sinha.
“These water pits will have nets installed in them for collecting the immersed items. Cleaning these will only be a matter of drawing these nets out and picking the litter,” he added. The proposed four will be complete by Diwali and will be permanent. Around seven to eight similar water pits have been proposed near other water bodies located inside and on the outskirts of the city. The cleanliness drive launched by RMC targeting dams and lakes of the water bodies is also nearing completion, urban body functionaries assure.
“We have been working on advanced planning this year. Most of the water bodies in the city which are frequented by devotees observing Chhath Puja have been cleaned mostly. The only litter in them is which accumulated in after immersion of idols following Durga Puja and will be cleaned soon enough,” Gupta said.
He continued, “Much efforts have been made and enough facilities provided by RMC, but the public response to these have been disappointing. Only public cooperation will be enough to put an end to most of the cleanliness problems of the city.”