New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday rejected a Public Interest Litigation seeking to allow Chhath Puja celebrations at the banks of Yamuna river due to the pollution level.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela rejected the PIL moved by Purvanchal Nav Nirman Sansthan seeking to allow Chhath Puja celebrations at Geeta Colony Ghats.
The court said that the performance of Chhath Puja rituals on the Yamuna riverbed will be harmful for the devotees, keeping in view its pollution level.
The court said that people could fall ill from bathing in the toxic water of Yamuna river.
“It will be very harmful to you. The fact is that the river is so polluted that if you dip into it, there is the likelihood that people will suffer harm. We can’t allow that. The river itself is highly polluted,” the court said.
Chhath Puja is dedicated to the worship of the sun god and is celebrated with a rigorous four-day routine.
Chhath Puja is a significant event for Delhi's Purvanchali community, which consists of Bhojpuri-speaking residents from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
This community represents 30-40 per cent of the voter base in Delhi where assembly elections are scheduled for early next year.
Ahead of Chhath Puja, the Yamuna river was seen inundated with toxic foam. As this raised concerns about rising pollution levels, the authorities to deployed chemical defoamers to mitigate the issue.
Last month, the Delhi unit chief of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Virendra Sachdeva, fell ill and was hospitalised days after taking a dip in the heavily polluted water of the Yamuna river. After taking a dip in Yamuna, he was admitted to the RML Nursing Home as he complained of 'skin itching and breathing issues'.
Sachdeva slammed former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal over his “failure” to fulfil his promise of cleaning it by 2025 and “sought forgiveness” for the “corruption” of the Delhi government, which he alleged looted funds meant for cleaning the river.