Delhi High Court refuses to allow devotees to perform Chhath Puja at 'highly polluted' Yamuna banks

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to allow devotees to perform Chhath Puja at banks of Yamuna river here, noting that it was highly polluted and could lead to people falling sick.

The high court noted that the Delhi government has made sufficient arrangements for devotees to perform puja at 1,000 different spots in the city and nothing else can be done at the eleventh hour.

The high court's ruling came just a day before the start of the Chhath Puja festival.

"Please understand you will fall sick. we can't allow you (devotees) to go into the water. It is highly polluted. It is a gigantic task, it cannot be done now. We can't clean up Yamuna in one day's time," a bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said.

It said that "this will be very harmful, we don't want any harm to be done to devotees".

The bench observed that there was no unanimity in citizens and while someone wanted to clean up Yamuna, the others wanted the encroachment and authorised construction on the river to stay so that they could do their politics.

The court referred to its recent order in another case in which judicial notice was taken about the fact that pollution in the Yamuna river was at an all-time high.

"Keeping in view the aforesaid facts as well as the fact that the Chhath Puja festival commences from tomorrow, this court is of the view that no orders can be passed in the PIL. The same is accordingly dismissed,” the bench said.

The court was hearing a PIL by Purvanchal Nav Nirman Sansthan challenging the ban imposed by Delhi government on Chhath puja celebrations at banks of river Yamuna.

Delhi government standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi told the court that Yamuna was highly polluted at this juncture and if the devotees were allowed to perform Chhath Puja on the river banks, they are likely to fall sick.

He submitted that the government has earmarked 1,000 spots to perform the Chhath Puja in Delhi and sufficient arrangements have been made.

As the petitioner's counsel said the river banks could be clean and they were willing to take the initiative, the bench said it was a challenging exercise which could not be done overnight.

"The problem today is, we cannot be discharging sewage in the Yamuna. We are today discharging sewage in Yamuna. Whether it is industrial sewage or it is our own sewage. Look at the unauthorised colonies built at the banks. Their untreated sewage is going into this," the bench said.

The court said due to unauthorised construction at the river banks, water was not being allowed to stroll into Yamuna.

"The government will not give them a flat or reallocation. They will keep them over there so that the message goes to entire slum dwellers that they are protecting their interest. All politicians will go there and give long speeches. They will not allow city's water to flow into Yamuna because if that flows and if those people get removed, they will have no slogan to contest an election," it remarked and added that there was a need to clean people's minds.