Chandigarh: Offerings lying near trees to turn items of worship

Chandigarh, November 7

Having identified about 40 peepal and banyan trees in the city where sacred offerings and items have been kept, the Municipal Corporation is going to do ‘visarjan’ of some of the these and make reusable devotional products of the remaining ones.

Paper-made products for worship will be made from discarded religious manuscripts and pictures under the trees. Decorative items, pooja thali, religious symbols, photo frames, trays, candle stand and dhoop batti stand would be made from these. Other reusable products will be made from ‘chunni’.

According to the plan, the MC’s self-help groups comprising women will do the job. “It will help in two ways. First, the area under trees will be cleaned and second, worship material discarded long ago will be disposed of properly, respecting religious sentiments. So far, about 40 such trees have been identified and more will be identified in the coming days,” said an MC official.

In a similar move, the MC had earlier started a practice wherein flowers and garlands offered at religious places are turned into ‘dhoop’ (incense). Going the organic way, the corporation has been picking offered flowers and garlands from temples in its vehicles and processing these to make incense.

The MC is also planning to start make ropes by crushing coconut fibre.