Varanasi and Allahabad are gearing up for a greener Durga Puja. Many organisers in Varanasi have decided to immerse kalashs (urns) instead of idols, and their counterparts in Allahabad will immerse idols in ponds, chosen specially for the occasion, away from the Ganga and Yamuna rivers. Both cities have decided to comply with a 2013 High Court order that banned immersion of idols in rivers.
The Sarvajanik Durga Puja Samiti (Townhall) in Varanasi became the first puja committee to do away with idols and use a kalash instead. Nine other puja organisers decided to follow suit.
The new trend has hit the idol makers hard with puja organisers refusing to collect idols they had commissioned. Sushant Kumar Pal, who has been engaged in idol-making for six generations, is so frustrated that he is mulling destroying the idols.
The committees’ decision to change track follows large-scale violence during Ganesh visarjan last month when organisers insisted on immersing idols in the Ganga. A protest rally against the administration’s crackdown early this month again sparked violence and over 50 people were arrested.
In Allahabad, hectic preparations were being made to put in place a giant artificial pond at the Sangam before Dussehra. A wooden platform has been readied to allow the processions to reach the pond and it has been given a tarpaulin base to prevent water pollution.
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