Ganesh festival: Mixed response to PMC tanks for fifth-day immersion

PUNE The fifth day of the Ganesh festival on Tuesday saw immersion of idols from households, both Ganpati and Gauri

PUNE The fifth day of the Ganesh festival on Tuesday saw immersion of idols from households, both Ganpati and Gauri. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) made the necessary arrangements for immersion by providing tanks across the city.

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Mobile tanks on the backs of trucks were available in all areas of the city with ward offices as the point of contact.

The PMC and the Pune police have appealed to citizens to avoid crowding this year in the light of the Covid pandemic. The water tanks are a push to ensure that the festival remains eco-friendly and immersion of idols does not pollute water bodies.

While most Ganpati idols made their way to the PMC tanks, a random check by HT still found a sizeable number of idols being immersed in rivers across the city.

“As the pandemic is on, we decided only two people from our family will do the immersion. We have immersed our Ganpati at the PMC centre. The arrangements were good, but the number of such centres needs to be increased as we had to walk 2-km from our house to get here,” said Sanket Khaladkar, a resident from Narayan peth.

Another citizen Manish Janardhan said, “PMC cannot force or make it compulsory to immerse idols only in their tanks. We did the immersion in a river. There are many people who want to do immersion the traditional way.”

Meanwhile, riverside roads were closed for vehicles as water was released from the Khadakwasla dam on Monday night. As a result, access to the rivers was difficult for many seeking to immerse idols there.