Record 1,65,505 Ganesh idols immersed in 419 artificial tanks

 

 

 

 

IN an achievement for themselves, Nagpurians immersed 1,65,505 Ganesh idols in 419 artificial tanks installed by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) throughout the city during, during the Ganesh festival. On the day of ‘Anant Chaturdashi’, Nagpur witnessed a heart-warming celebration as thousands of devotees thronged the artificial tanks installed at various spots in city to bid farewell to ‘Ganpati Bappa’. For better coordinated ‘Ganesh Visarjan’, the Municipal Commissioner and the Administrator personally visited all major immersion sites in the city and directed officials and staff concerned to help citizens and devotees. Nagpur is the only city in the country to ban immersion of idols of the deities in water bodies. With the citizens’ co-operation, the administration has been successful in its endeavour to ensure eco-friendly Ganesh Visarjan this year. NMC installed 419 artificial tanks throughout the city for immersion of small idols while big idols were immersed in a huge tank constructed at Koradi. Dr Chaudhari visited and inspected Futala Lake, Sonegaon Lake, Ujjwal Nagar artificial tank, Chitnavis Park, Timki NMC School and Kachhi Visa ground where artificial tanks are installed.

 

 

During the inspection, Dr Chaudhari was accompanied by Dr Gajendra Mahalle, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Solid Waste Management Department; Prakash Warade, Deputy Municipal Commissioner; Milind Meshram, Deputy Municipal Commissioner; Ganesh Rathod, Assistant Municipal Commissioner; Pramod Wankhede; Dr Deepak Selokar; Ravindra Bundhade; Vijay Gurubakshani; Sachin Rakshamwar; Alpana Patne and others were present. The staff from the Solid Waste Management Department of the NMC put efforts to make it a grand success. This year, 1,212 Ganesh idols were installed by Ganesh mandals across city, in which 457 idols were immersed on Tuesday. All the big idols were immersed in Koradi artificial tank. To avoid traffic jam and any incident, police department were vigilant throughout the day at immersion sites. Out of 1,65,505 Ganesh idols, 1,60,809 were clay idols and 4,696 were of PoP idols. NMC made special arrangements to maintain cleanliness at all Visarjan sites across the city. NMC arranged Nirmalya Kalash near all the artificial tanks. Total 1,132 civic staffers were deployed at the Visarjan sites. Total 169.72 tonnes of Nirmalya was collected at the Visarjan sites in the city. 

 

 

Local NGOs plays a major role in helping devotees at immersion sites every year during visarjan. The volunteers of NGOs guide citizens to maintain cleanliness, put nirmalya into Nirmalya Kalash and avoid immersion of idols in water bodies. This year limited NGOs showed their presence at immersion sites and helped the civic body for smooth conduct of the process. During his visit, Municipal Commissioner, on Tuesday, interacted with members of Green Vigil Foundation (GVF), Rotary Club of Nagpur and Green Maha Club and appreciated their efforts. “We actively participate to educate and help devotees during immersion every year. This year also we were in contact with NMC officials for our support. But they had enough manpower to manage the visarjan sites,” Kiran Mundra of Tejaswini Mahila Manch told ‘The Hitavada’. “We conducted joint meeting of NGOs and Ganesh Mandals this year too. NGOs like Green Vigil Foundation, Rotary Club of Nagpur, Green Maha Club and others helped us for this activity. Volunteers from GVF were there all the 10 days of Visarjan,” said Dr Gajendra Mahalle, Deputy Commissioner, Solid Waste Management Department. As per sources, devotees faced problems during immersionas there were no volunteers present at visarjan sites.