Religious leaders will urge flower vendors to junk plastic; use paper, sal leaves

Experts said this would be a step towards keeping river Yamuna clean as most of these flowers and puja items are usually thrown into the river along with the plastic packets. People don’t throw these items in the garbage because of religious sentiments attached.

Leaders of religious institutions in Delhi would be urging vendors, selling flowers outside temples, mosques and gurdwaras, not to use polythene packets for selling puja items. Instead, they would be asked to use paper and sal leaves.

The vendors would be asked to use paper and sal leaves. (HT Photo)

Experts said this would be a step towards keeping river Yamuna clean as most of these flowers and puja items are usually thrown into the river along with the plastic packets. People don’t throw these items in the garbage because of religious sentiments attached.

This was decided in a meeting held last month between the two-member Yamuna pollution monitoring committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and representatives of some of the religious institutions in the national capital.

“Eminent persons from Birla Mandir, Nizamuddin, Rakabganj Gurdwara and Lotus Temple were called to the meeting. It was decided that the vendors around religious places will be asked not to use polythene for packing puja paraphernalia and the old practice of using papers for wrapping such items would be resorted to,” the minutes of the meeting held by the NGT committee said.

Hindustan Times on February 1 had reported about the government’s plan to rope in religious leaders to fight pollution in the Yamuna. The suggestion had come from Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister of Delhi, to take the help of religious leaders to convey messages about how households and residential colonies contribute to pollution in the river.

“Puja items once used are not thrown into dustbins. They are thrown into the river. If they are packed in paper packets and sal leaves, the pollution would be less compared to plastic. But efforts should be made so that these items are not dumped in the river but collected and recycled,” Manoj Misra, convenor of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan, said.

It was also decided in an earlier meeting that the government would take the help of NGOs to set up collection points at Wazirabad, ISBT, Signature Bridge and Nizamuddin Bridge from where people usually throw the puja leftovers into the river.

While, on the one hand, the government has been asked to set up permanent boards and signages on bridges advising people not to throw puja leftovers into the river, on the other hand, efforts to retrieve the flowers and paraphernalia to recycle them would be also encouraged. A NGO at Nigambodh Ghat is already making incense sticks from the leftover flowers.