Durga idols being immersed at Babughat on Sunday. Deputy commissioner (headquarters) Vineet Goyel said on Monday that action would be taken against puja organisers who do not immerse their idols by Tuesday. Picture by Pabitra Das

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya will move court for orders to stop immersions in the Hooghly.

“I think the pollution in the river can be minimised if immersions could be stopped,” the mayor said during a boat ride to inspect the river on Monday. He was accompanied by mayoral council member Faiyaz Ahmed Khan and chief engineer (conservancy) Arun Sarkar.

In the 20 hours till 1pm on Monday, 1,800 images were immersed in the Hooghly and civic trucks removed 110 tonnes of leaves, flowers, garlands, earthenware and other puja refuse. According to a police estimate, around 5,000 images will be immersed in the river till Wednesday.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) now charges Rs 1,600 for granting a puja permission. The mayor thinks the amount should be raised to Rs 3,000.

The high court had directed the state pollution control board, Calcutta Port Trust and the CMC to ensure the Hooghly remains clean after the immersions.

In an attempt to carry out the order, the civic body has set up 13 cages from Ratanbabu ghat in the north to Bichali ghat in Garden Reach for puja organisers to dump their litter.

“But till now, half the organisers preferred to immerse the puja items along with the idols,” said a civic official.

“Around 50 per cent of the organisers are not using the cages,” said civic chief engineer (conservancy) Arun Sarkar. This is the third time the CMC has set up cages along the river during Durga puja immersions.

“This year, we have deployed 110 labourers and about 700 volunteers to remove puja refuse from the river. The project will cost Rs 25 lakh,” said mayoral council member Khan.

“The situation is worse than last year’s, with garbage being strewn all around,” said environmentalist Subhas Dutta, who monitored the condition of the river along with officials of the state and central pollution control boards on Monday.

Metro takes a stock of how the environment norms were abided by or violated during Puja 2007.

Noise

The state pollution control board received, on an average, five complaints daily during the Puja about violation of noise norms. “The figure was less than of the previous years,” said an official. But many organisers did not bother to use sound limiters (which would have kept the loudspeaker volume within 65 decibels), a must under the board rules.

“We have no idea what a sound limiter is,” was the response of most organisers who violated the rule.

Power consumption

At least 19 community pujas installed energy-efficient lights in and around the pandals and in the process, prevented emission of 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide. “Solar panels were installed in seven of the pandals,” said S.P. Gon Chowdhury, of the state renewable energy development agency.

Plastic and pandals

The banned plastic carrybags (those below 40 microns in thickness) were seen being used in the food stalls of several pandals. But there were exceptions. “Plastic carrybags were not allowed anywhere near our pandal,” said Debasish Kumar, of Tridhara Sammilani, in south Calcutta.

A member of Sunil Nagar Sarbojonin, in east Calcutta, said: “We have been using eco friendly material like jute and hay in setting up our pandal.”