Chhath Puja over, heaps of waste dot Ghaggar banks

Days after Haryana’s state-level Chhath Puja celebrations along the Ghaggar in Sector 23 here, the glow of diyas and devotion has dimmed — leaving behind a trail of waste on the banks of the river.

A grand celebration with Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini also performing puja — a first in Haryana amid Bihar elections — and yet the spot strewn with waste paints a picture of sorry state of affairs.

As makeshift tents and bamboo structures were dismantled this evening, heaps of soggy flowers, discarded offerings and plastic waste dotted the “Chhath ghat”. Children were seen wading through the muck, searching for coins tossed into the river during the rituals, even as stray dogs scavenged nearby. The sight contrasted sharply with the previous day’s spiritual fervour and holy offering on Monday when CM Saini and senior leaders had joined thousands of devotees at the venue.

Despite prior assurances of post-event sanitation, the area bore the unmistakable stench of neglect. Civic workers never arrived. What makes the situation more concerning is that activists had made a request in writing to the Deputy Commissioner, Panchkula, on the day of the event — urging authorities to install dustbins, clean the ghats and deploy sweepers during and after the celebration. The letter, dated October 27 and addressed by Tapasya Sharma, co-founder of Save River Ghaggar Campaign, was marked to the XENs of the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) and the Irrigation Department for necessary action. However, the requests went unheeded.

“How do you know a city will go up or down in Swachhta ratings? Here’s an example — a ghat is constructed for one particular festival, Chhath Puja. However, on the day of the puja, a single dustbin was not in sight at the ghat, in spite of our request to the city magistrate for the same,” said Tapasya Sharma. “Thus, the result is that different places in Panchkula where the Chhath Puja rituals were performed are now full of religious leftovers, polythene, plastic and empty water bottles. Looking at the apathy of the Panchkula Administration and the departments concerned (Haryana Irrigation and HSVP), next year’s Swachhta ranking of Panchkula may not go up.”

Environment activist Mohit Gupta, also a co-founder of Save Ghaggar, pointed to a deeper contradiction in the event itself. “Religious sentiments aside, the plastic and leftovers causing pollution apart, the Chhath devotees were all allowed to use the Ghaggar water, which, as per the Haryana State Pollution Control Board’s own reports, is not even fit for human bathing. There is a Ghaggar Action Plan in operation since long, but practically only continuous deterioration of water quality is happening. It is high time we started doing something for the rivers which we Hindus worship as devis,” he said.

For many residents, the scene at the ghat — children playing amid litter and murky water flowing past — stood as a stark reminder of how devotion and environmental neglect continue to coexist uncomfortably on the banks of the Ghaggar.

“The same thing happened during Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja visarjan this year. No matter how grand is the faith but civic sense of devotees as well as those in authority is on the decline. No doubt that more people in the north now bring Ganpati home or celebrate each festival from different states, but it is equally important to respect the rivers, which are also considered sacred in Hindu religion,” points out a resident, on the condition of anonymity.