Artificial immersion tanks go missing !

 

 

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had made a grand arrangement of installing artificial tanks at various places in city for eco-friendly immersion of Ganesh idols. The arrangement by the civic body was first such initiative by any Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra, in terms of the volume of such tanks. Also, with this eco-friendly initiative, Nagpur earned the status of being the only city in the country to have banned immersion of idols in its water bodies. However, the ground reality cuts a sorry figure for the Nagpurians. For, most of the tanks are removed from the spot putting the devotees in a fix. In most households across Maharashtra, idols of lord Ganesh are installed for varied period ranging from one day, one-and-a-half day, three days, five days, seven days and 10 days. Many families faced difficulties while bidding an emotional adieu to the Bappa.

 

After initial days of ongoing Ganeshotsav, artificial tanks which were installed at various spots, including near water bodies, were missing. The devotees suffered hardships as the tanks were nowhere to be found at the designated spots for reasons best known to the civic bosses. Milind Sohoni, a resident of Subhash Nagar, said, “As per NMC App there were seven spots in our area where NMC was to install the immersion tanks. Some of my friends visited the spots two days ago. To their surprise, the tanks were sans water. When they contacted NMC office and informed it about the issue. In another shocker, they found the tanks removed from the spots. The devotees expected that the civic body officials must issue instructions to persons concerned to fill the tanks with water.” According to social worker and an office-bearer of Congress, Monish Chandekar, in the Bhagwan Nagar area, no immersion tank was installed since first day of the Ganesh Utsav. “It is learnt that the civic body is taking some steps to install the tanks for immersion of lord Ganesh idols on the last day of the festival. But the authority failed to make such arrangement for those installing Ganesh idols for shorter period,” pointed out Chandekar.

 

When The Hitavada contacted Dr Gajendra Mahalle, Deputy Commissioner, Solid Waste Management Department, he said, “We did install tanks at some areas in the city on day one of the ‘Visarjan’ but we noticed that some idol sellers dumped the damaged and unsold idols of the deity in the empty artificial tanks. Therefore, we removed the tanks and decided to install them from fifth day of the ‘Visarjan.” Dr Mahalle also said, “For smooth conduct of immersion process, we made available concrete artificial tanks at Sonegaon and Gandhi Sagar lakes from day one itself. We deployed civic staff to assist citizens during immersion. Similarly, NMC also installed tanks near all other water bodies of the city.” “The incident of missing tank is not of one or two places. In Nagpur, at most places the tanks were missing. Secondly, NMC should have informed public about the alternate arrangement done near the water bodies, if they are at all doing so,” pointed out Chandekar.