Given the rising pollution levels in river Yamuna, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to grant permission for performing the festival of Chhath Puja at Geeta Colony Ghats on the Yamuna riverbed.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela dismissed a public interest litigation filed by Purvanchal Nav Nirman Sansthan on the grounds that performing Chhath Puja on the Yamuna riverbed would be harmful for the devotees, since pollution in the river was at an all-time high.
Appearing for the Delhi Government, Advocate Santosh Kumar Tripathi apprised the Bench that Yamuna river was highly polluted at this juncture and if the devotees were allowed to perform Chhath Puja on the riverbed, they were likely to fall sick.
He further submitted that the Delhi Government has earmarked 1,000 spots to perform the Chhath Puja in the national capital and sufficient arrangements have been made for the same.
The High Court took note of its recent order in the Shabnam Burney case, wherein a judicial notice was issued over the fact that pollution in the Yamuna river was at an all-time high.
The counsel appearing for the petitioner organisation sought lifting of the blanket ban on the performance of Chhath puja, stating that the Yamuna riverbed could be cleaned.
The High Court said it was a challenging exercise, which could not be done overnight.
The Bench told the petitioner that if he wanted to get involved with the cleaning-up process, he should work over there.
The High Court observed that people could not keep discharging sewage in the Yamuna, whether industrial or domestic. Speaking about people living in unauthorised colonies built at the banks of the river, it said the untreated sewage continued polluting the river.
The Bench said it was dealing with a petition, in which 241 jhuggi dwellers were holding the whole city to ransom by not allowing city’s water to flow into Yamuna.
The government would not give them a flat or reallocation. They would be kept over there to send a message to entire slum dwellers that the government was protecting their interests. All politicians would go there and give long speeches. If these 241 dwellers get removed, the government would have no slogan to contest an election, it noted.
The High Court stressed to clean the mindset, stating that in the minds of people, Yamuna was uncleaned. People were not cleaning their minds. If the minds were cleaned, then Yamuna would be cleaned very quickly. Cleaning Yamuna was unfortunately not on the priority list, the Bench lamented.
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