The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is drawing up plans to clean several ghats along the Hooghly around the year, departing from its practice of cleaning the ghats periodically and especially before festivals.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had come down on the state government for its failure to curb the pollution of the Hooghly and for the discharge of solid and liquid waste into the river.
In a separate matter, the tribunal had asked the state government to keep aside Rs 3,500 crore in an account and spend it only on solid and liquid waste treatment after it found the state lacks in environmental protection measures.
Garbage at Nimtala Ghat on Wednesday. Pradip Sanyal
Some of the ghats to be cleaned are Mullick Ghat, Doi Ghat, Baje Kadamtala Ghat, Babughat, Kashi Mitra Ghat, Bagbazar Ghat and Kumartuli Ghat.
“We used to clean the ghats periodically. This led to the accumulation of solid wastes on the banks. Sometimes this waste rolled down into the Hooghly,” said a KMC official.
“We plan to create a dedicated team that will clean the ghats regularly. The same team will move from one ghat to another. We are thinking about a mechanism so that the team comes back to each ghat after intervals of four or five days,” said the official.
According to him, the large ghats like the Baje Kadamtala Ghat are cleaned frequently, while some others are cleaned after long intervals. Some other ghats are cleaned only before festivals or religious occasions.
“The proposed team will also go down into the river and remove floating materials like plastic packets and discarded flowers near the bank,” said the official.
Metro visited Babughat on Wednesday afternoon. The bank was filled with plastic bags, earthen containers, plastic containers and discarded flowers, among others.
In October 2023, the tribunal appointed a committee comprising the chief secretary of the state government, secretary of the environment department and member secretary of the state pollution control board for “maintenance of cleanliness at all times of the Ganga Ghats on both banks of the River Hooghly.”
The order also said: “Photographs on record, in this case, present a filthy and dismal picture of the Ganga Ghats which are not only used by the common people of Kolkata for religious purposes but are also presented to the world at large as a tourist attraction.”
Paushali Banerjee, the counsel for the petitioner whose appeal led to the tribunal’s order, said the petition had highlighted the poor state of the ghats. “The chief secretary will file an affidavit before the tribunal mentioning the measures taken by the state to curb pollution of the Hooghly,” she said.
While the KMC remains vigilant during Durga Puja, Kali Puja and other festivals, there is hardly any monitoring during the rest of the
year.
KMC officials said that despite appeals people still throw garbage into the river.