Ganpati festival in Mumbai: Follow ‘one ward-one Ganpati’ concept, BMC urges mandals

The 10-day festival begins on ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’.

The Mumbai civic body has urged Ganesh mandals in prominent areas like Andheri, Juhu and Versova to follow the concept of ‘one ward-one Ganpati’ during the festival this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vishwas Mote, the assistant municipal commissioner of K-West ward, which covers Andheri-West, Juhu, Versova and other areas, made this appeal in a letter to the Ganpati mandals last week. The 10-day festival begins on ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’, which falls on August 22 this year Mumbai is one of the worst hit by coronavirus with over one lakh cases and more than 5,500 deaths due to the disease.

Nearly 150 big Ganpati mandals are located in the K- West civic ward, which has so far reported 5,813 COVID-19 cases and 258 deaths, according to data of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). It is currently ranked fourth in the number of coronavirus cases among the 24 civic wards in the city.

Mote in his letter said he has already urged all corporators in the K-West ward to implement the concept of ‘one ward-one Ganpati’. He said as the height of Ganapati idols has to be restricted to four feet, ample number of artificial lakes will be created in the ward for the immersion of idols.

Assuring to provide all facilities at the artificial lakes, he appealed to citizens to perform immersion of idols in those water bodies only. “To avoid overcrowding and for maintenance of social distancing, there is also a plan of accepting Ganapati idols at the society gates for immersion,” Mote said in the letter.