HYDERABAD: Though police permissions are mandatory for setting up Ganesh mandaps and immersing idols in the lakes, thousands of mandaps that are being set up across the city for the Ganesh festival do not require a No Objection Certificate (NOC) or a fire permission from the Fire Services Department. The make-shift mandaps are, therefore, bound to be ill-equipped in the eventuality of a fire that might arise out of them.
Unlike Mumbai, where the fire brigade is involved in authorising the mandaps, Hyderabad has limited its fire safety to providing precautionary instructions to the organisers.
“The Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Committee that oversees the celebration maintains that permissions are not required as the festival is a religious celebration and not a commercial activity,” said a senior officer at the Fire Services Department. However, the illegal tapping of live wires and the improper use of electrical wiring are common sights in many of the mandaps. This, in turn, puts the mandaps in a precarious position. The Committee, meanwhile, maintains that Ganesh Utsav is not a commercial activity, and therefore, should not warrant permissions.
