Indore Municipal Corporation to set up Nirmalya Kunds for used pooja items near water bodies

In another step towards keeping the city’s water bodies clean, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) will set up special permanent containers where people can put used items of worship like flowers, incense ashes, packets and wrappers, cotton, earthen lamps, pots, food, etc. The contents of these containers will then be brought to the processing plants at Khajrana Ganesh Mandir and Ranjit Hanuman Mandir where they will be decomposed to make usable compost.

Nirmalya Kunds will be placed at every pond, lake, wells and bawadis where people tend to dump these items. IMC Commissioner Pratibha Pal has instructed concerned officials to put up signboards to instruct people to use the Kunds or containers to put their used pooja waste instead of putting them in the water bodies.

The practice of dumping pooja items in open waters has been going on from time immemorial. It depicts their faith in their idol. However, these items contain a large amount of plastic and other non-biodegradable material. In an attempt to ensure the cleanliness of these water bodies, the move has been taken forward by the civic body.

Under the ambit of various schemes launched to conserve groundwater conditions, IMC inspected wells and step wells in Zone 3. Further the IMC officials issued Instructions for the cleaning, recharging and geotagging of these wells and step wells.