Durga Puja committees in city say no to plastic; to go eco-friendly

Prayagraj: With less than a month left for Durga Puja, many puja committees of Sangam city, including those which are over 100-year-old, have pledged not to use plastic in any form in their pandals.
The idea is to spread the message of environment-friendly celebrations that begins from October 1.
“The items that are being used for interior and exterior decorations will be made of bamboo, paper pulp, husk, jute etc. The jewellery of all deities will be made of clay and painted with natural colours. As for decoration needed to add to the brightness of the stage and the idols will be made of paper pulp and cardboard with zero use of anything that can pollute the environment,” said general secretary of Allahapur puja committee Sanjeev Kumar Singh.
Not only the interior decoration and the entire structure, the organisers have given special emphasis on using eco-friendly colours, he added.
Similar sentiments were echoed by president of Govindpur Durga Puja committee, Bishawroop Sarkar: “We are planning that this year’s pandal of our Barwari would be on the theme of protecting the environment and what better it could have been than to say no to plastic, from the smallest detailing of the interior decoration to members of Barwari refraining from using any form of plastic.”
Even the idols of Durga and Mahishasur will all spread the theme of protecting the environment.”
“Mahishasur of our pandal would be shown uprooting a large tree and Durga killing him,” said Prateek Soni.
The samiti of Preetam Nagar too has decided to promote the message of protecting the environment.
“From Soop, dalia, chattai etc, our pandal would use only wood, bamboo and jute for the decoration. We would be requesting devotees not to come with plastic carry bags or any form of plastic,” said general secretary Debashish Majumdar. In previous years too, many of samitis had adopted the message of protecting the environment.
For example, the pandal at Civil Lines was based on the theme of women empowerment and had refrained from using plastic.
“Every decoration in our pandal was made of natural material which goes together with our theme as women in every household are the one who can do best to discourage plastic,” said the organiser.