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Pune police rolls back Ganpati festival guidelines, mandals to meet CM on August 2
Pune police department has rolled back their guidelines for this year’s festival within three days of issuing them
In a bid to revise the guidelines for the Ganesh festival this year, the Pune police department has rolled back their guidelines for this year’s festival within three days of issuing them. The move comes after Ganesh mandals raised various issues and demanded a change in the guidelines. While chief minister Eknath Shinde will be visiting Pune on August 2, and will hold a joint meeting with prominent Ganpati mandals at the Dagadusheth Ganpati mandal temple.
“The guidelines issued earlier by the police department have been cancelled and we are in the process of revising these guidelines. Considering the demands raised by the Ganpati mandals, we will soon issue fresh guidelines for this year’s Ganpati festival,” said Pune police joint commissioner Sandeep Karnik. The Ganpati festival will begin on August 31 this year and this will be the first celebration since easing of restrictions after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mahesh Suryavanshi, treasurer of the Dagadusheth Ganpati mandal trust, said, “We have always had good cooperation from the Pune police department and if they have considered our demands and are revising the guidelines, we welcome this decision. As the celebrations are taking place after a gap of two years, there is a lot of enthusiasm amongst Ganpati mandal volunteers. And with the help and cooperation of the Pune police, we will celebrate this year’s festival in a grand way.”
On July 27, the Pune police department had held a joint meeting with all prominent Ganpati mandals at police headquarters after which a detailed guidelines’ circular was issued by the joint commissioner of police, Sandeep Karnik. Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta had also been present at the meeting. The Ganpati mandals were somewhat unhappy with some of the points in the guidelines and raised concerns over the police permitting only two box kamans per Ganpati mandal in the city, and each kaman with advertisements being limited to 20 feet.
The Ganpati mandals gave suggestions and put forward their demands, including allowing a greater number of advertisement kamans to all Ganpati mandals as they are a major source of revenue, permitting the pandals to be put up in the same place for the next five years if the venue has been the same for the last many years along with necessary permission documents, and allowing loudspeakers till 12am on the last five days of the festival.
When asked about chief minister Eknath Shinde’s visit to the Dagadusheth Ganpati temple, Suryavanshi said, “We have got official confirmation of the CM’s visit to the Dagadusheth temple during the first half of the day on Tuesday, August 2. As the Ganpati festival is drawing near and he has already declared that there will be no restrictions this year, we will also be taking up points about celebrations during his visit.”
