MUMBAI: On the fifth day of the Ganesh festival, over 36,000 idols had been immersed. Of these, a tiny fraction of 135 were immersed in natural water bodies – a testament to the MPCB’s regulations, Bombay High Court’s rulings, and the BMC’s doubling down on artificial ponds. It is this that has caused the BMC’s expenditure on Ganeshotsav to skyrocket over the years.
An expenditure of ₹0.32 crore in 2007-08, as per data accessed through an RTI response by activist and lawyer Godfrey Pimenta, has jumped to ₹54.47 crore in 2024-25. The most substantial rises were seen from 2019-20 to 2020-21, the beginning of Covid, from ₹10.2 crore to ₹22.88 crore - a 124% increase; and between 2022-23 and 2023-24, from ₹31.12 crore to ₹49.10 crore, it saw a 57% increase.
In total, over the 18 years from 2007-08 to 2024-25, the BMC has spent a whopping ₹246.88 crore, found Pimenta. Data on the current year’s expenditure is not complete yet.
“The BMC has to control the expenditure, as expenditure has been on the rise for the last 5 years. Even during the pandemic when no visarjans took place, expenditure is highly inflated,” said Pimenta.
However, Prashant Sapkale, deputy municipal commissioner of Zone 2, who has been in charge of central Ganesh festival arrangements, countered that as there was a restriction on the number of people allowed to go for a visarjan, many makeshift water bodies were constructed so that visarjans are closer to people. “The civic body has ramped up figures of artificial ponds to 288,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}However, Prashant Sapkale, deputy municipal commissioner of Zone 2, who has been in charge of central Ganesh festival arrangements, countered that as there was a restriction on the number of people allowed to go for a visarjan, many makeshift water bodies were constructed so that visarjans are closer to people. “The civic body has ramped up figures of artificial ponds to 288,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}It became mandatory to immerse POP idols in artificial water bodies in 2021, after the Central Pollution Control Board issued new guidelines in 2020, said Stalin D, director of Vanashakti. However, the BMC began introducing artificial ponds gradually since 2006, explaining the spike in expenditure. In 2024-25, the civic body also started the free distribution of shadu clay to incentivise idol makers to use the eco-friendly material. This year, the BMC included eco-friendly paint in their distributions.
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