With barely days left for Chhath, a social outfit in Jamshedpur started cleaning up two ghats near Telco township to make them accessible to devotees, without waiting for the district administration or civic body.
Around 10 men in their 30s, under the banner of Bhojpuri Navchetna Manch, an outfit espousing the cause of Bhojpuri-speaking people, armed themselves with brooms, spades and shovels to reach Citu Talab near Tarcompany Township at 7am. After five hours of rigorous cleaning, the team moved to Hudco Lake near Telco and started cleaning it from 1pm.
When this report was filed, they were still on the job.
The youths are dumping waste collected from ghats at nearby dustbins, having earlier informed the corporate management of IS&WP and Tata Motors to clear out the vats once they are full.
"We are happy with our work at Citu Talab, where we made a visible difference. We will continue to clean Hudco Lake till we are similarly satisfied," said Ankit Anand, a Telco resident and social outfit member.
Spread across 10,000sqft area, Citu Talab witnesses around 3,000 Chhath devotees from Manifit, Tarcompany and Birsanagar every year. Hudco Lake, spread over 9,000sqft area, sees around 2,000 devotees from Telco Colony, Radhikanagar and Kharangajhar who offer arghya during Chhath.
"We plunged into this work as a form of social service as we received complaints from many residents that Chhath ghats here are full of filth, mud, muck and puja paraphernalia after Kali Puja immersions. As time was short, we decided against waiting for the administration or any local urban body and started our job. We hope to clean Hudco Lake and its surroundings properly by this evening," said outfit president Appu Tiwary.
Bhojpuri Navchetna Manch has also come out with a helpline 8797647889.
"We want this to be like an SOS. If anybody sees garbage lying on Chhath ghats, he or she can phone us and we will try to clean up and inform Dhalbhum SDO and local urban bodies concerned," Ankit added.
Chhath this year begins with nahay khay on November 4, kharna the next day and sandhya arghya and usha arghya (prayers to sun god in the evening and morning) on November 6 and 7.
On November 6 evening, all roads will lead to river ghats, lakes and ponds in and around Jamshedpur for the evening arghya to the sun god. On November 7, before dawn, devotees will again make their way to the waterbodies to offer the morning arghya.
Over a lakh devotees offer arghya at 18 major ghats in Jamshedpur, including Subernarekha, Mango, Kapali, Domuhani, Pandey, Bhuiyandih, Sati, Substation, Bodhanwala and Baroda. A fewer number go to other waterbodies.
Do you think more outfits should take part in such drives? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com