The divine mother will descend on earth eight months from now, but Jamshedpur Durga Puja Kendriya Samiti's general secretary met the special officer of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) on Thursday to brainstorm on ways to curb river pollution during immersions in the wake of chief minister Raghubar Das's recent call to the city to make Jharkhand swachh by 2018.

Calling his meeting with Samiti president Rambabu Singh "fruitful", JNAC special officer Deepak Sahay told The Telegraph they had mulled ideas to reduce pollution in the Subernarekha, where the bulk of the 300-odd Durga idols of the city are immersed, but which will take sizeable planning, which is why they could not implement it before Saraswati Puja.

The JNAC and the samiti are planning to place large clay pots on the approach to the river as well as a posse of volunteers directing procession members to deposit puja paraphernalia such as plastics, polythene bags, flowers, cloth and tinsel in the clay pots before immersing the idol.

"We don't want to hurt sentiments of the devout who immerse hundreds of idols, that is why we are mulling these clay pots wherein extra articles may be deposited so as to lessen the burden on the river and make post-immersion clean-up easier," Sahay said.

Agreeing, Singh of the samiti said both Puja committee members and representatives of the district administration would double up as volunteers. "They would be deputed in various ghats on the banks of Subernarekha to monitor immersions. We will also seek help of local NGOs," said Singh.

JNAC special officer Sahay added that they and the samiti would place orders with potters for making large clay pots.

He added they would get in touch with the regional office of the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board in this regard. "We cannot stop idol immersions in the river. But, we can prevent dumping of polythene, plastics, clothes and other paraphernalia that pollute it more. We will also strictly tell Puja committees to go for eco-friendly idols."

"We will also seek Jusco's infrastructure aid to clean the river," he added. In the past, Jusco had helped the civic body by dredging up pollutants from the Subernarekha.

The chief minister, during his recent visit to the steel city, asked the district administration, the civic body and samiti to enforce immersion rules.