The National Green Tribunal (NGT) allows Baliyatra festival on the banks of Mahanadi

The suspense over the annual historic Baliyatra festival has been cleared because the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has finally allowed the Cuttack district authorities to go ahead with necessary arrangements on the banks of Mahanadi.
Of course, the NGT has issued a clause directing the administration to maintain cleanliness and ensure that garbage is not dumped nor permanent structures erected on the river bed.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 5 November 2016.

The area were the festival is held is not a river bed and it is alluvial area or, rather, an old land mass. Allotment of sites to vendors for stalls will begin immediately.
The NGT had on 2 November issued directions and restrictions of erection of stalls on a petition filed by an environmental activist. The festival marks the ancient maritime history of Odisha and is a yearly event that happens at around this time of the year - it starts on 14 November.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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