Devotees perform puja in 'dirty' Yamuna

While the blame game over providing fresh water in Yamuna for Chhath Puja continued, devotees expressed unhappiness as they had to perform prayers and take bath in the “polluted” and “dirty” river.

At the ghat near ITO bridge in central Delhi, scores of people thronged the venue for performing evening prayers on the first day of the Chhath Puja. However, most complained about the Delhi government’s inability to provide clean or fresh water in Yamuna and a foul smell emanating from the river.

“The water is very dirty. I performed my puja and took a bath quickly as I couldn’t stay inside the river. There is no fresh water,” said Sobha Parkash.

Thousands of devotees thronged major ghats in the city on the first day of the puja on Tuesday offering prayers to the sun god.

“I am coming here since last three to four years. Each year there is fresh water so that we can perform puja in it and bathe. But, this year I found the water dirty,” said Deepak Mukherjee.

On Monday, Delhi Congress had blamed the Aam Aadmi Party government for failing to ensure clean water in the Yamuna.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Ajay Maken said that Kejriwal government did not write to the Haryana government for release of water into the Yamuna river for the Chhath Puja nor did the BJP-led Haryana government took any initiative to release water for the puja. As a result “the Yamuna river was like a stinking drain with mounts of rubbish piled on the river banks and the Poorvanchal devotees would be forced to hold their puja in this dirty water,” he said.

“We are the ones bearing the brunt of the struggle between states,” said Subhash Kumar Das.

However, AAP minister Kapil Mishra said on his Twitter account, “For all those crying no water for Chhath Puja, please don’t do cheap politics”.

But, besides this one grudge, people were happy with the arrangements and facilities provided by the AAP government.

“Arrangements this year are better than previous times. The government has put barricades so that people don’t go deep into the river which I hadn’t seen before,” Mukherjee said.

There were also cultural programmes at various ghats by Maithali Bhojpuri Academy.