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Punekars unhappy over Ganesh immersion arrangements
Punekars who carried out Ganesh immersion after one and a half days of the festival found the civic arrangements lacking in terms of poor staff deployment and unclean ghats
Pune: Though the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has set up immersion spots, mobile and artificial tanks, residents who carried out Ganesh visarjan (immersion) after one and a half days of the festival found the civic arrangements lacking in terms of poor staff deployment and unclean ghats.
On Thursday, the second day of Ganeshotsav, many faithful performed immersion of the idol according to the tradition.
PMC has placed artificial tanks near immersion ghats, tables and other facilities for residents. Devotees who were planning to immerse idols into the Mutha river were unhappy as there were no proper safety arrangements at ghats. Sagar Chintal, a resident of Shukrawar peth, said, “We immerse idol after one and a half days of the festival every year. We were surprised to find basic safety arrangements missing at ghats on Thursday. Volunteers of PMC were missing to take our idols and immerse in the river at the Nene ghat near Omkareshwar bridge. The ghat was also unclean. The civic body had barricaded the ghats and we were told to immerse idols in the artificial tanks. Hence, we did not immerse our Ganpati at the ghat but went to Sarasbaug canal to perform the ritual.”
Kedar Mane, who also returned from Nene ghat in Shaniwar peth area in the neighbourhood without immersing the idol, and said, “PMC can appeal and not compel anyone to immerse idols only in artificial tanks. We wanted to immerse the idol in a river, but due to civic mismanagement, many like me refused to immerse idols in river or tanks.”
To reduce the number of idol immersion in natural waterbodies, PMC has set up artificial tanks and made available mobile tanks for immersion during the festival. “As this was the first immersion day, we found that some arrangements were lacking. We will take adequate steps to address these issues and ensure that safety arrangements are in place for the remaining days of the festival at all designated ghats,” said a senior PMC official on condition of anonymity.
