NEW DELHI, INDIA, April 2, 2012 (HindustanTimes): Taking a small step to prevent the Yamuna from getting more polluted, volunteers of a non government organisation stopped people from throwing puja items into the river on Sunday. According to Gopi Dutt Aakash, founder member and president of Youth Fraternity Foundation (YFF), an NGO working to save the Yamuna from pollution, hundreds of tonnes of plastic and other pollution material find their way into the river during the festival season.
“During last Navratras in October 2011, an estimated 600,000 kilograms (about 1.3 million lbs.) of puja items were thrown into River Yamuna in Delhi alone. We want to create a system where the sacred waste is collected directly and disposed of and recycled properly without causing any pollution in the river,” Aakash said.
Under the project ‘Pushpanjali Pravah’, the volunteers of YFF collected two truckloads of sacred waste from Yamuna Bridge on Vikas Marg on Saturday. The NGO put up banners on the iron grille along the bridge, requesting people not to throw any waste in the river.