Pimpri societies gear up for Ram Mandir event with rath yatra, pujas, maha prasad

A festive atmosphere prevails in Pimpri as hundreds of housing societies prepare to mark the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on Monday with a host of events and activities.

Sangale said the societies have planned Ram Lalla procession, maha prasad, maha aarti and abhishek, and flags have been put up on the premises. (File)

Even as Ayodhya is gearing up for the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony on Monday, citizens, especially those living in cooperative housing societies in Pimpri, are also gearing up to celebrate the occasion with enthusiasm and gusto. They have lined up a series of events throughout the day meant for the participation of scores of residents, including women and children.

“We have 1,300 housing societies as our members. And each will be organising a series of events to celebrate the inauguration of the Ram Mandir. In fact, the celebrations have already started,” said Sanjeev Sangale, who heads the Chikhali-Moshi Pimpri-Chinchwad Housing Societies Federation.

Sangale said the societies have planned Ram Lalla procession, maha prasad, maha aarti and abhishek, and flags have been put up on the premises. As for donations, he added, “It is voluntary, not compulsory. Citizens are donating funds as they wish. From Rs 100 to Rs 10,000, the donations vary from person to person. Many pay Rs 500, some even up to Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000,” he said.

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A resident of the G K Palacio Society in Moshi, Sangale said, “In our society, there are 500 flats. We have not so far collected any donations from the members. We are spending from the maintenance funds. Later, we will collect the amount from the members.” He said that on Sunday, they will be taking out a rath yatra. “We expect over one lakh people to participate in it,” he said.

Though most events in the city are being spearheaded by the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Sangale said, “Our events have been organised by us. There is no interference from political parties. Ram belongs to everyone….”

At Roseland society in Pimple Saudagar, there are 1,000 flats. As many as 12 events will be held in the society throughout the day, starting at 7 am and ending at 8 pm. “January 22 will be like a festival. Our society is gearing up for several events on that day. From early morning to late in the evening, the entire society will be busy celebrating the opening of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya by organising an array of events… The main event is conducting a puja like the one in Ayodhya. We have two temples, dedicated to Hanuman and Krishna, on our premises where the puja will be conducted,” said Chandan Chaurasia, a society member.

Vaishali Deshpande, another member of the Roseland society, said, “Our events will start around 7 am when we will conduct the abhishek which will be similar to one conducted for Lord Ram during his rajyabhishek. This will be the main attraction of the slew of events that we have planned. This will go on for two hours. After that, we have two members who had taken part in kar seva in 1992. These kar sevaks will share their experience of that day when then UP chief minister had said that his government had made tight security arrangements and won’t allow kar seva to take place….”

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Deshpande said the society has made donations voluntary for the event. “This event is being spearheaded by the RSS and VHP. They have instructed us that donations should not be compulsory but voluntary. From Rs 11 to Rs 11,000, people are donating as per their wish,” she said.

Kailas Jadhav, a resident of Dapodi, said, “Our local mandal is gearing up to conduct puja, aarti, maha prasad and bhajan on January 22. We are expecting participation from the society as well as the chawl members in the Dapodi area.”

Ganesh Rao, who lives in Sector 28, Akurdi-Pradhikaran, said, “We live in a bungalow area. But I don’t see activity in our area regarding the Ayodhya temple. I think basically the events are taking place in housing societies.”

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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