The civic body, which has already pressed its labourers to clean ponds across the city before Chhath, is planning to depute guards near the big water bodies to ensure that people do not dump Diwali and Kali Puja trash there.

A final decision in this regard will be taken at a meeting later this week, a Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) official said on Wednesday.

“Every year, the ponds are cleaned after Durga Puja but gets filled with idols of Kali, Lakshmi and Ganesh after Diwali forcing civic officials to carry out cleaning drives again. Since Chhath is celebrated six days after the festival of lights, cleaning the water bodies becomes a challenge. We are therefore planning to create designated places near the ponds where puja paraphernalia can be dumped,” an RMC official said.

Deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijavargiya, who has started visiting ponds since Tuesday, said guards would be deputed near the big ponds where most people come to dump puja waste.

“Though there are around 40 water bodies across the city where Chhath is celebrated, there are six to seven ponds which get really dirty after Diwali. One of them is Ranchi Lake which is surrounded by Upper Bazar, Hindipiri and Purani Ranhi and Line Tank Road near Main Road. We are trying to identify the others,” Vijayvargiya said.

He said once the ponds are identified, we will post guards there to put a check on dumping of puja waste. “It will be of great help. For the last two years, we have been demarcating a space for dumping the wastes but to no avail,” he said.

Some of the other major ponds are Karamtoli Talab, Line Tank Talab, Jail More Talab, Batan Talab, Hatania Talab and Kanke Lake.

RMC assistant municipal commissioner Sanjay Kumar he said a meeting to discuss Chhath celebrations would be held after three days.

“We will sit together with Chhath committee representatives and discuss the issue. We will ensure that ponds once cleaned do not get polluted again,” Kumar said.