Cuttack, Nov 5: On Friday allowance was given to the district administration to orgainse the much awaited Baliyatra on the Mahanadi riverbed as per the made plans by the National Green Tribunal. On hearing a review petition, the Green panel asked the same to maintain hygiene and cleanliness after the festival gets over on the riverbed. Nirmal Chandra Mishra, the Cuttack Collector said that in the review petition it’s been mentioned that the area on which the festival has been proposed is not a river bed but an alluvial area which is a huge land mass and it is too old. He also ensured smooth functioning of the festival.
It may be recalled that as soon as the NGT gave out its verdict, the district administration started to give sites to the vendors who all had applied for their stalls to be present in the festival. Replying to the petition, Biswajit Mohanty, the environmentalist of NGT on Nov 2 directed the Odisha government to stop the allocation of stalls rightaway
