M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Feb 11: What river Thames is to the people of London, Koel River is the same to over 1.4 lakh households in Daltonganj.
But the river is getting gradually dirty as drainages have been opened in it. However, on days like Budh Purnima, Makar Sankranti, Chhath and other festivals, people love to take a dip in this rain-fed river.
Sources said that the Swachhta Abhiyan is for the surface like roads, alleys, roundabouts, bus stands, railway stations, hospitals etc but none for the natural and artificial water bodies.
According to sources, a few non-government environmental organisations here hardly bother for this sluggish river Koel.
Cadres of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) here in Daltonganj recently took up the cudgels for the sanctity of this river.
The outfit collected debris of post idols’ immersion of the goddess Saraswati in the river Koel recently.
Vineet Pandey, a member of the ABVP’s national executive committee said that 15 cadres of this organisation worked for hours in the knee-deep water of the river Koel cleansing it of the remaining residue of the idols of the goddess Saraswati immersed here in this river recently.
The cadres retrieved iron nails, wood frames, straw, plastic etc from the bed of the river.
“Idols which are made of clay get dissolved but its frame is hard, solid and non-dissoluble. One of the cadres of the ABVP was hurt during the cleansing operation when an iron nail pierced his sole leading to the bleeding,” said Pandey.
The Namami Gange drive in UP was the driving force behind this removal of the wreckage post immersion, said the ABVP leader.
Sources said this is the first such operation of any student organisation to carry out a cleaning drive post any festival.
ABVP did it for the first time and won accolades from the people who live on the banks of the river Koel.
Surprisingly, when the ABVP cadres were cleansing the immersion sites no one from the public or even from the Medinirai Municipal Corporation lent any helping hand.
There was no word of admiration from Mayor Aruna Shankar and Deputy Mayor Mangal Singh for retrieving the wreckage from the bed of river Koel.
Koel, like all other water bodies, gets a human touch only days ahead of the Chhath festival.
