Broken idols recovered from canals, disposed of with rituals in Jind

More than 500 broken idols, pictures of gods/goddesses and household temples were disposed of by volunteers of ‘Suno Nahro Ki Pukar’, a social outfit, while performing rituals at a religious place in Jind district on Wednesday.

All these items were recovered by the volunteers from various canals passing through Rohtak city. These were immersed by the devotees in the canals.

“It was the seventh time that we took all these items to the religious place in Jind for their disposal with rituals. On the day of purnima (full moon) every month, these items are purified at the religious place with a havan. Some items are immersed in fire while bricks are made by crushing idols. These bricks are used in the making foundation of temples so that people’s faith is not disrespected in any way,” said Jasmer Singh, chief patron of the outfit.

Mukesh Nainkwal, general secretary of the outfit, said they had been working to check canal water pollution for the past over 3.5 years.

“We spend three hours daily at the JLN canal in Rohtak to make people aware of keeping the canal water clean. Since the canal water is supplied to houses for drinking, we educate the people about the ill-effects of dumping idols and other religious material in the canal by holding placards in hands and organising lectures and seminars in educational institutes,” said Nainkwal.