Ganesh mandals following regulations to get 5-year mandap permission

BMC in Mumbai allows Ganesh mandals following rules for 10 years to get 5-year permissions, avoiding annual renewals. New mandals get one-year permissions. Applications can be submitted online from August 6.

Mumbai: In order to avoid last-minute rush for seeking permissions and tedious renewals each year, the BMC announced on Thursday that Ganesh mandals which have been following government rules for the last ten years will now get permission to set up mandaps for five consecutive years. This initiative is taken to avoid repeated permissions sought by the members of the Ganeshotsav committees.

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Ahead of this year’s Ganeshotsav, starting September 7, the civic body on Thursday met with the representatives of various mandals and associations. The civic body said from August 6, mandals can get these permissions online through a single window system. The nominal fee for this service is ₹100. Mandals which are going for the five-year permission must submit a self-declaration confirming that they had been following all rules over the past decade. But even after this extended permission period, annual renewals are still supposed to be done which includes no-objection certificates from the locals and the traffic police.

In addition to this, new Ganeshotsav mandals will receive permissions which will be limited to only this year, to make sure that all new mandals follow the necessary regulations before they are considered for extended permissions in the future.

Applications for pandal construction can be submitted online from 10 am on August 6 through the BMC’s website. In this meeting deputy Commissioner, Prashant Sapkale requested mandals to immerse idols in artificial ponds created by the BMC.