Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday said the immersion of idols in buckets was a good idea and asked officials why they had not created awareness regarding this method which the people could have used during the Ganesh festival.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil .B. Radha-krishnan and Justice S.V. Bhatt was dealing with the pleas by IPS officer Anjana Sinha, activists Lubna Saraswat and Sudhakar seeking protection of Malkam Cheruvu in Serilingampally.
When the issue of immersion of idols came up, the Chief Justice mentioned about the immersion of idols in buckets. He said people in several cities were following this practice and asked why civic authorities here were not promoting it.
The bench pulled up the authorities for not identifying the sewerage discharge channels which were polluting lakes in the city. The bench asked what was the use in treating polluted water of the lakes without curbing the discharge of the sewerage into them in the first place.
The judges asked the authorities why they had not invoked criminal provisions against those polluting the lakes though there was such a provision under the law.
Asking about sewage cess, the bench said if that tax would be spent on treating the polluted water the situation would have been better. The authorities were interested in only collecting sewage tax from the people.
Expressing dissatisfaction at the report submitted by the authorities, the bench said registration of only seven cases by the Pollution Control Board against the errant itself indicated the apathy of the authorities.
The bench told the authorities to think about the sewage discharge arrangements before granting permission.
