MUMBAI:
Charity commissioner Shivkumar Dige on Wednesday warned the
Lalbaugcha Raja Ganeshotsav Mandal against growing incidents of misdemeanour. Volunteers at the pandal had turned argumentative with deputy commissioner of
police Abhinash Kumar on Tuesday after he stepped in to halt deliberate crowd mismanagement.
Video footage of the incident shows the DCP being forced to climb over a barricade to urge karyakartas to not allow their "preferred worshippers" in the opposite direction of the queue. One volunteer turned argumentative and refused to pay heed.
"I visited the mandal to seek details of the incident and warned them to conduct themselves properly with devotees. Ww have also received reports of women being manhandled by male volunteers, which is unacceptable," Dige said.
Some years ago, footage had surfaced of women constables being roughed up by volunteers. Live coverage of the pandal shows how most female worshippers are routinely forced out physically by male karyakartas.
Mandal president Balasaheb Kamble said, "The
charity commissioner visited to check arrangements. Tuesday's incident was unfortunate but the matter has been sorted." He declined to say whether the offender had apologised to the DCP.
In 2017 officials of the charity commissioner's department had watched the annual auction of gold and silver offerings at the pandal. There is no immediate plan to do so this year.
Lalbaugcha Raja receives gold idol weighing 1.2kg.
