KMC tips help ghat clean-up on other side of the Hooghly

KOLKATA: Taking a lesson from immersions in Kolkata on the eastern bank of the Hooghly, the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) this year has improved its facilities that were extended to over 400 Puja committees and housing complexes at Ramkrishnapur Ghat.
A visit to both ghats, maintained by KMC and HMC, revealed to TOI similar pictures — a group of porters and civic volunteers at work, removing idol structures from the river.Though Bajekadamtala Ghat looked cleaner than Ramkrishnapur Ghat, with more than 100 civic workers, police and volunteers checking every detail of the clean-up process, the latter earned a high score for a relatively clean ghat despite a dearth of machines.

A group of 20 workers from HMC’s conservancy department and an equal number of volunteers from the ‘Clean Ganga Mission’ programme worked hard since Friday to clear Ramkrishnapur Ghat of debris, an HMC employee said.
“It is true that we lacked sophisticated machines to ensure instant removal of idol structures from the Hooghly. But we had a dedicated team of workers from our conservancy department, apart from the volunteers from a Ganga cleaning project, which made the task possible,” said a civic official at Ramkrishnapur Ghat on Monday.
According to a HMC conservancy department worker, Veer Singh, the first day of immersions proved to be the toughest since the team had to struggle to clear over 150 structures in less than 24 hours. “It was really challenging to clean up the ghat in such a short time. Each of us toiled hard and eventually met the deadline,” Singh said.
At Bajekadamtala Ghat, the KMC brought in a special action squad comprising workers from the civic body’s conservancy and parks department. This team extended its helping hand to more than 100 porters hired to remove the idols from the Hooghly. As many as 10 cranes were used, a civic official confirmed. According to a KMC conservancy department official, for this team, too, the first day (Friday) happened to be the toughest when the civic workers and porters had to ensure removal of 500 structures in 24 hours. “But we managed to keep the ghat clean,” a KMC official said.
Times View
Heavy metal pollution following immersion not only damages waterbodies, it also have a long-term impact on the ecosystem. Apart from educating the idol-makers, the administration should also make people aware of the ill-effects of heavy metals used in idol paints through mass campaigns.