College students conducting a clean-up drive in Dadar Chowpatty after Ganpati visarjan, on Sunday. (Express photo: Nirmal Harindran)Keeping in mind environmental and social concerns, mandals have adopted various environment-friendly initiatives this year. Khetwadi’s sixth gully Mumbai Cha Samrat inaugurated their plastic bottle crusher machines on Sunday.
The mandal has also prepared a large storage for plastic bottles and will donate three such machines to nearby pandals. “We have collected a large quantity of bottles in our storage and will continue the recycling process even after the festival,” said Ram Shinde, president of the mandal.
Goregaon Maharashtra Mandal has appealed to devotees to refrain from bringing modaks as offerings and has asked them to donate notebooks instead. The collected notebooks will be donated to the needy and backward class students. The backdrop for the Ganpati idol has also been created to resemble a zilla parishad school. “Our target is 30,000 books and we have, so far, collected over 18,000,” said Pankaj Dalvi, an official of the mandal. “We have identified pockets of zilla parishad schools and certain ashramshalas, where we will distribute them.” A blood donation drive was conducted at Andheri Cha Raja.
Meanwhile, Keshav Aali Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal of the BDD chawl in Worli donated Rs 5,555 to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) by cheque for its next space mission, which was handed over to the city charity commissioner. Children living in the chawl expressed their support for ISRO by holding banners and special prayers for the organisation at the mandal on Sunday. “We will succeed,” said Arvind Bhosale, a member of the mandal. “We are proud of all ISRO scientists.”
Ananya Bhosale, a student of Class VI, said, “We promised Ganpati bappa that we, too, will become scientists and work for the conservation of nature.”
Lalbaugcha Raja, which has Chandrayaan-2 as its theme this year saw encouraging messages on the screens behind the Ganpati idol.
“We wanted to tell ISRO that…we are with them and wish them better luck next time,” said Bhausaheb Kamble, president of Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Mandal.
