Community must use influence to expedite Yamuna cleaning: Activist
NEW DELHI: Hours before thousands of devotees would wade through the Yamuna waters to worship the Sun god commemorating Chhath, one of India’s most polluted river looked like a sea of froth as it flowed under the bridge at Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj on Wednesday afternoon.
Every year ahead of Chhath — the four-day festival celebrated on the sixth day from Diwali -- the river, which bears the burden of Delhi’s sewage, suddenly becomes the focus of all those responsible for keeping it clean. The government, municipal corporations and the Delhi Jal Board pull out all stops to put in place best of the arrangements for the devotees.
“It is unfortunate that the government machinery which doesn’t move despite repeated raps by the National Green Tribunal and courts, a festival suddenly breaks their slumber,” said Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan and petitioner in the Yamuna cleaning project case.
If political parties use the Chhath occasion to woo Purvanchali voters—a sizeable chunk of population in Delhi — it can also be used as an opportunity to put pressure on the stake holders to make efforts to save the river, Misra said.
“Lakhs of people throng the ghats during the festival. There can be perhaps no bigger occasion than this when the devotees can ask the politicians what they have done for cleaning the river, which is important to their faith,” Mishra said.
This Monday, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked Delhi government and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for delaying compliance of orders on the Yamuna cleaning project.