Guwahati, Oct. 13: Pandals toeing the green and clean line will not just draw bigger crowd this Durga Puja, but have recognition up for grabs once the festivities end.
The Kamrup (metro) district administration has, for the first time, introduced Green Puja Award 2015 to honour the best eco-friendly pandal in the city.
"The Puja committees need to send their applications for participation in the contest to greenpujaaward2015@gmail.com within October 16," Sharmistha Bora, extra assistant commissioner, Kamrup (metro), told The Telegraph today. "A committee that has been formed in this regard will survey the pandals during and after the festival. The results will be declared after the festival," Bora said.
The administration has laid down certain parameters for adjudication though.
The idols should be made from natural materials as mentioned in the holy scripts and idols should be made of traditional clay as against baked clay and plaster of Paris. In case the idols are to be painted, only water soluble and non-toxic natural dyes should be used. The use of thermocol or any non-biodegradable item for decoration and idol-making should strictly be avoided as it leads to pollution.
The Puja organisers have been encouraged to create litter-free zones, including placement of bins/containers. Flowers, clothes and decorative materials should be removed before immersion of idols. Biodegradable materials should be collected separately for recycling or composting while non-biodegradable items need to be collected separately for disposal in landfills.
Some of the other criteria include eco-friendly lighting with lower emissions and lower power consumption, provision of clean and disinfected drinking water and adequate drainage facilities to avoid waterlogging.
Only banana leaves, paper plates or clay plates should be used by the Puja committees for distribution of prasad.
The decision to hold the contest was taken by Kamrup (metro) deputy commissioner M. Angamuthu during a meeting with various departments here recently.
There are over 500 pandals in Kamrup (metro) district. The concept of "green Puja" is not new to this city with pandals taking the green route over the years not just to curb pollution but draw crowds as well.
In 2010, Eco Tourism Society of Northeast, a city-based NGO, instituted Prakriti Award. This year also the NGO will give award for the best environment-friendly Durga Puja of the city to make citizens aware of the need to protect the environment by curbing pollution.
"We conduct the competition in five phases, starting from registration, pre, ongoing and post-Puja surveys and finally award distribution. During the initiative we collect data on the history, theme, uniqueness and various measures that the Puja committees take to minimise the negative impacts on the environment. Our members encourage and motivate the Puja committees to come up with eco-friendly idols and design their pandals on themes related to tourism and environment," Gautam Dutta, president of the NGO, said.
