Mumbai: 709 permissions for Ganesh pandals pending

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) records, there were 136 applications pending with the 24 civic body wards and 573 with the police department. The areas of Parel, Shivadi have the highest number of applications pending at 93.

Around 709 permissions were pending for Ganesh mandals on Wednesday, a day before the festival.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) records, there were 136 applications pending with the 24 civic body wards and 573 with the police department. The areas of Parel, Shivadi have the highest number of applications pending at 93.

For the 10-day festival, a total of 2,126 applications were received, of which 473 were rejected till Wednesday.

Deputy municipal commissioner Anand Waghralkar, who is in-charge of the Ganesh festival, said, “The applications pending at ward-level are being processed and can be cleared soon. Some of the permissions have been held because we are waiting for police permissions.”

After a new festival policy was framed, BMC is granting permission only after receiving the no-objection certificates (NOCs) from the police and traffic department.

The issue of poor system of clearance by the government authorities has been raised by the Ganesh mandals and Ganeshotsav coordination committee.

“BMC promised us a single-window clearance but in several cases nodal officers were not available in office,” said an organiser from a Ganesh mandal, whose permissions are pending.