With Chhath Puja celebrations now over, over 60 ghats across Gurugram which were all decked up for the festival are all set to undergo a cleaning drive, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) announced on Tuesday.
Of all the city’s ghats, the organisation of Chhath at 20 falls under the jurisdiction of MCG. The rest are managed by the Purvanchal Chhath Puja Samiti.
The cleaning will now fall to the designated Chhath organisation committee of the area. In a notification, the agency listed the areas where the cleaning will take place along with the names of the contact persons.
Organising committees at major ghats, including Sheetla Mata Mandir, Shakti Park, Basai Talab and Rajendra Park, said that, while the festival was celebrated with great enthusiasm across the city, the remaining waste will be cleared in the next one to two days.
However, residents and organising committees have previously alleged that the MCG had failed to ensure the upkeep of ghats for Chhath Puja in the city , leaving them to depend on other groups or organisations to celebrate the four-day festival. And now with the cleaning too they expect the same.
Saying that the focus of the festival is not just devotion but also promoting awareness about cleanliness, Rajesh Patel, one of the organisers at Rajendra Park, “The MCG did not even provide water for our ghat’s sarovar during the festival. At this rate, we don’t expect much help from their side in cleaning the ghats either. They have not even contacted us yet.”
At Shakti Park, over 25,000 devotees came to perform the Puja. Dr J.P. Kushwaha, director of the Youngster Sewa Committee and Chhath Puja Committee, admitted that the ghats were somewhat unclean.”Last year, we did receive some support from the civic body, but this time there was no assistance. We will begin the cleaning process as soon as possible and release the water to nearby areas to nourish trees and plantations,” he said.
Over at Basai Talab, Vedanand (goes by single name), one of the organisers, shared, “During the Puja, a lot of flowers, bamboo sticks and other materials are used and offered to Sun God, and these are often left behind in the sarovar. All this needs to be cleared to restore the area.”
Meanwhile, the organising committee at Vatika Society in Sector 82 said that their ghat is listed under both the MCG and the Municipal Corporation of Manesar (MCM). “When we reached out to both civic bodies, we were told that our ghat does not fall under their jurisdiction. So, we have received no support from either. We will try to release the water into nearby gardens or parks, which will at least benefit the area and will clean the area by ourselves,” said Ajay Kumar Singh, resident of Sector 82.
When contacted, Ravinder Yadav, additional commissioner of the MCG, said, “All necessary assistance will be provided, and the MCG will inspect the sites to ensure proper cleaning.”
Meanwhile, senior sanitation inspector, Sandeep (goes by single name) did not respond to our team’s calls or messages.