Noida (Uttar Pradesh): Puja material and plastic bags were found littered around Yamuna Ghat in Kalindi Kunj on the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh border, a day after Dusshera and Durga Puja celebrations in the capital.
In a bid to protect the river bodies and curb the menace of plastic, the state had made alternate arrangements for people to immerse idols in artificial ponds and encouraged the use of environment-friendly idols. There were no idol immersions in the Yamuna this year.
Even after the request by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to shun the use of single-use plastic, the picture did not change this festival season.
On the Kalindi Kunj bridge images showed that plastic polythenes and pooja materials were found strewn about. Some people had even tied polythene bags on the railings of the bridge.
Modi in his address on Gandhi Jayanti termed plastic as a major threat to sanitation and conservation of animal and environment and renewed his call to end the use of single-use plastic by 2022. In his Independence Day speech, the prime minister had called for a shun on single-use plastic starting October 2.