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This is an archive article published on August 20, 2020

No processions, no immersion of Ganesh idols in river: Pimpri-Chinchwad civic body

"Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly... if we don't want the virus to spread, we should avoid celebrations. There should be no installation or immersion processions in the city," said Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar.

ganesh chaturthi, ganesh chaturthi pune, ganesh festival, ganesh immersion in pune, ganesh festival in pune, ganesh chaturthi pimpri, pune city newsPMC worker close the artificial Ganesha Idol Immersion pond by filling it with sand as PMC has issued orders about not allowing Immersions at a public place or in the river because of the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic, (Express Photo by Ashish Kale)

WITH the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic looming large over the upcoming Ganesh festival, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) on Wednesday prohibited Ganesh installation and immersion processions and urged local residents to instal idols at their home.

Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly… if we don’t want the virus to spread, we should avoid celebrations. There should be no installation or immersion processions in the city,” said Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar.

Urging people to celebrate Ganesh festival at home, the PCMC chief said, “People should install Ganesh idols at their home, do the pooja and make arrangements for immersion inside their home… the PCMC will not make any arrangements in the river ghat area for the immersion”.

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PCMC Additional Commissioner Santosh Patil said the PCMC is not going to give permission to mandals to set up pandals. “We are expecting local residents and mandals to install Ganesh idols at home. They should immerse Ganesh idols in barrels which have clean water, unlike river water which is not clean. They can use sodium bicarbonate, in which the idol gets dissolved in two days,” he said.

Patil said the Ganesh idols should not be more than four feet in height. “That is the norm set by the state government. We have also urged local residents to ensure that the height of idols does not exceed the permissible limit and there is no violation of the government guidelines,” he said.

As for the 800-bed jumbo hospital which was supposed to start functioning from Thursday, Patil said, “A few things still remain to be done, especially the installation of the oxygen tank. I think it will take some more time to get the jumbo hospital operational”.

PCMC, PMRDA and PMC are jointly setting up the hospital. “PMRDA is in charge of the construction part. The hospital will be run by a private entity but it will be supervised by the PCMC,” said Hardikar.

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Meanwhile, the PCMC chief has quarantined himself as his personal secretary has been found positive for Covid-19.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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