The district administration has taken a strict note over the indiscriminate use of plastic, thermocol plates and glasses, to serve eatables and drinks to Sravani mela devotees who travel on foot to Tarkeswar shiva temple from Baidyabati Nemai Titha ghat.
Every year, during Shravani mela, in the month of July, lakhs of devotees from nearby and far off places collect holy water of the Ganges from Nemai Tirtha ghat in Baidyabati and carry two earthen pitchers full of holy water on slings all the way to Tarkeswar shiva temple, covering 38 kms.
Different NGOs put up pandals along the 38 kms stretch of Tarkeswar road from Nemai Tirtha ghat to Tarkeswar temple. The NGOs who provide resting places for the tired devotees ~ offer them eatables and drinks ~ are directed not to use plastic, thermocol or any other non degradable items to serve eatables and drinks to the devotees. It is found that most of them do not strictly abide to the strict directives of the administration.
Moreover, hundreds of roadside food outlets which comes up only on Saturdays and Sundays for four consecutive weeks, indiscriminately flouts prohibitory directives on the use of plastic, thermocol plates and glasses.
One would find thousands of plastic glasses and plates thrown on the way side, if one travels through the entire stretch of 34 kms of Tarkeswar road. Drains, irrigation canals and agricultural land areas remain scattered with these plastic items. The civic bodies and panchayats cannot cope up with removing the tons of plastic, thermocol plates and glasses that gets heaped up on Saturday and Sunday nights.
Environmentalists have raised their voice again and again towards the huge mass of accumulated nonbiodegradable plastic and thermocols all along the both sides of 34 kms stretch of Tarkeswar road right from Nemai tirtha ghat till the entry point of the Tarkeswar temple. The drainage system, irrigation canals and agricultural lands get choked. Moreover, studies have revealed that eatables and drinks served in plastic plates, glasses and containers, leaves its toxic affect on the served eatables and drinks.
The district administration, civic bodies and panchayats have this time taken up the challenge to stop the use of plastic items by the food outlets and making the use of degradable plates and glasses mandatory.
Mr Subir Ghosh, the chairman-in-council of Baidyabati, and Tarkeswar civic body chairman, Mr Swapan Samanta said, besides issuing strict directives to the NGOs and other food outlets on the Tarkeswar road to strictly use degradable plates and glasses to serve the devotees, night patrolling will be carried on by the civic volunteers all along the entire stretch of the road, divided in different zone-wise to bring a check to the use of plastic glasses and plates.