GOD OF PROSPERITY IS HERE
SHOW BEGINS Pandals in city all decked up to welcome lakhs of worshippers
Ganeshotsav has begun and a festive spirit sweeps over Mumbai.
Yet organisers of 911 pandals are an unhappy lot as the BMC has kept their applications pending for the want of No Objection Certificates (NOC) that are yet to be given by local police stations and the traffic department. Some are also with the wards pending for scrutiny.
An August 24 report states that BMC received a total 2,085 applications out of which 935 were given permissions and 239 applications were rejected.
In Parel (F/south ward), 19 applications pending are in which Vishwas Mote, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (AMC) stated that 13 applications have been sent for police NOC, one application to the estate manager another to the assistant engineer (building and factory) and the remaining four are new applications received recently.
“Probably by evening, all pending applications would be cleared once the NOCs and approvals are received from the different department officials,” Mote said.
BMC also received applications from murtikars (sculptors) seeking permission for construction of pandals. Officials said they received 428 applications from the sculptors out of which 177 have been granted permissions, 138 applications rejected and 113 are still pending before the civic body for NOCs.
A senior civic officer of BMC stated that they did give mandals to procure permissions because in some cases the forms were not filled properly.
While in some cases, pandal members failed to provide required documents like the sketch of the pandal for which police and traffic departments have delayed their NOCs.
Naresh Dahibhavkar, president of the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti (BSGSS), the umbrella body of all sarvajanik Ganesh mandals in Mumbai, said often these members construct pandals and do not wait for the BMC permission, fearing it would get delayed.
“They think if the BMC gave them permissions at the last moment, then they will have no place to keep the Ganesh idols. Mandals are confident that they would get permission as the days go by and sometime even in between the festival. Those who are celebrating sarvajanik Ganeshotsav from the past many years do not usually face much problems,” Dahibhavkar said.
Mandal members think if the BMC gave them permissions at the last moment, then they will have no place to keep the Ganesh idols. But the members are confident that they would get permission as the days go by and sometime even in between the festival. Those who are celebrating sarvajanik Ganeshotsav from the past many years do not usually face much problems
— Naresh Dahibhavkar President BSGSS