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Pune police department issues Ganpati festival guidelines
The meeting was held at the Pune police headquarters and Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta, joint commissioner Sandeep Karnik, and several other senior police officials were present
Ahead of the Ganesh festival slated to begin on August 31, the Pune police department on Wednesday called a special meeting for the maintenance of law and order and citizens’ safety, following which, they issued a notification regarding this year’s celebrations and guidelines and restrictions for the 10-day celebrations including the last day of the immersion procession. While prominent Ganpati mandals have now suggested changes in these guidelines in view of the celebrations having been restricted for the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As per the notification issued, the Pune police department will permit only two box kamans per Ganpati mandal in the city, while each kaman with advertisements on it will be limited to a height of 20 feet. There will be no running mandap this year and the major income for the mandals will be advertisements. For the fifth, seventh, ninth and tenth days of the festival, loudspeakers will be permitted only between 6am and 12am. Most importantly, no loudspeakers will be allowed within a distance of 100 metre from hospitals, educational institutions, courts and medical clinics.
On their part, the Ganpati mandals have made suggestions and demands, one of which is to allow a greater number of advertisement kamans to all Ganpati mandals as they are a major source of revenue. The mandals have demanded that if the venue of the pandal has been the same for the last many years along with necessary permissions, the police should extend permission for the next five years. They have also asked that loudspeakers be allowed to play till 12am on the last five days of the festival.
The meeting was held at the Pune police headquarters and Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta, joint commissioner Sandeep Karnik, and several other senior police officials were present. “All instructions have been given to the Ganpati mandals and forcibly taking vargani will not be allowed. Also, it is compulsory to inform about the decoration or dekhava to be done during the 10-day festival, including the last day, to the nearest police station. Ganpati mandals should avoid taking up issues that will hurt sentiments or prove controversial,” said Karnik.
“During the meeting, we put forth our demands. One of our demands is to allow a greater number of kamans this year and permit loudspeakers till 12 am on the last five days of the festival. Another issue we raised is about pandal permissions which nearly all mandals face every year. If the mandal has permission of 2019 for the venue, the same should be extended for the next five years,” said Nitin Pandit, secretary, Tulshibaug Ganpati mandal.
