The receding Ganga has left the ghats overflowing with trash with a little over a month left for Chhath, the biggest religious festival of Bihar.

The Telegraph visited four prominent ghats on Friday and found trash piled up on the steps and people washing clothes and bathing in the river, making an absolute mockery of the state government's Ganga Abhiyan and the central government's Swachch Bharat Abhiyan. On Sunday as well, the situation was no different.

Idols of gods and goddesses lay amid the garbage heaps.

The condition of Collectorate Ghat, located a shout away from the Patna district magistrate's office, was the worst.

"This place is so dirty that it resembles a garbage dump," said Vishwa Mohan Sharma (28), who said he is a regular visitor to the ghat. "Not even once has any government agency or any civil society organisation turned up to check out the condition of the ghat (since the floods)."

He pointed out that for all the administration's breast-beating about cleanliness drives, there are no dustbins at the ghat.

"No boards have been put up to prohibit people from throwing waste," he said. "The sole responsibility of keeping ghats clean, however, doesn't rest with the government. People should also play a proactive role. They should be fined for throwing waste."

The condition of Buddha Ghat, barely a kilometre away, was no better.

"The flood brought misery on us," said Vijay Kumar, who runs a dairy shop nearby. "Since the water receded, no one from the administration has visited this ghat. The stench from the rotting garbage is nauseating."

The tourism department had developed the Collectorate, Kali and Gandhi ghats in 2010-12. But their poor maintenance highlights the fate of such projects.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agrawal claimed all ghats would soon be cleaned up.

"Directions have been issued to Patna Municipal Corporation to launch cleanliness drives at all the ghats," the DM said. "As the floodwater has receded, we will ensure that the ghats are cleaned at the earliest."

He admitted that puja materials were a big problem, of which people had to be made aware.

"Worshippers too are to blame for the filth scattered on the ghat," agreed Deepak Kumar Ojha, who lives near Kali Ghat.

Heaps of puja materials greeted us at Gandhi Ghat, considered one of the cleanest ghats in the city. Ram Chandra Tam, who runs a teashop nearby, said: "The onus of keeping the ghat lies both with both the government and the people. Both must realise their own responsibilities."