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The 10-day Ganesh Festival in Mumbai and Maharashtra which was celebrated in low-key sans any fanfare due to COVID 19 restrictions and guidelines this year, culminates today.
Immersion of Ganesh idols have begun since morning, but there are no processions for one of the most awaited events in the state. For immersion of household idols and small mandals, only one or two members from a family or housing society are being allowed to take the idol to the immersion sites.
Big Ganesh mandals had cancelled in advance their idol installation this year.
At the popular locations like Girgaum Chowpaty in south Mumbai, people are not allowed to enter the beach for immersion and the devotees have been asked to hand over the idols to the deployed civic administration team.
Similar practise is being followed in other cities across the state at rivers and other immersion spots. The local administrations have installed artificial tanks at various locations across their cities and marked circles maintaining social distancing so that crowding is avoided.
The state government has also urged that small idols be immersed at home in buckets. Besides, a huge workforce of police personnel, rapid action forces and local civic body teams have been deployed in Mumbai and across the state to ensure incident-free immersion of idols of Lord Ganesh. Similarly, CCTV cameras fitted at key locations will keep a close watch on immersion.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra’s higher and technical education minister, Uday Samant has written to Union Minister of State for Education, Sanjay Dhotre to apprise him of the difficulties students appearing for JEE and NEET from Nagpur, Chandrapur and Amravati would face to reach their exam centres, in wake of massive flood situation. He has urged Mr. Dhotre to see to it that the students do not suffer as several villages are cut off from the mainland.
As many as 15 thousand students from Vidarbha region are appearing for JEE-NEET exams.
