Navi Mumbai: The Panvel Municipal Corporation has decided to celebrate Ganeshotsav in an eco-friendly way and keep natural water bodies clean. The civic body has appealed to citizens to either immerse idols in artificial ponds or donate them to the civic body.
In order to keep water bodies clean, the PMC administration has been taking a number of measures during this Ganesh Utsav.
PMC plans to keep water bodies clean
The civic body held a meeting with 15 NGOs on Friday and chalked out a plan for the collection of idols from households and ensuring that they are not immersed in natural lakes in the city. NGOs will reach out to citizens and convey the message of the corporation regarding the eco-friendly Ganpati celebration.
During the 10-day festival, the civic body will take two important steps—donation of Ganpati idol and immersion of idols in artificial lakes. For this, the civic body will set up a big mandap and appoint a senior civic official to set up idol donations in 78 important joints of the city.
In addition, the civic body will make special arrangements for idol collections at 36 housing societies with more than 300 flats. The collection centre will be set up on the ground floor of the society.
Citizens requested to use artificial lakes
Similarly, the civic body will also create artificial ponds at 26 places in the civic jurisdiction. “Instead of immersing Shri Ganesha idols in the lakes, citizens have been requested to use artificial lakes,” Ganesh Deshmukh, the municipal commissioner. He added that the devotees celebrating Ganeshotsav will be given a certificate by the Municipal Corporation for using artificial lakes or ponds.
The NGO will cooperate with the corporation to convey the eco-friendly Ganeshotsav celebration to common citizens. For this, the civic body will be creating a WhatsApp group and all the information about the eco-friendly Ganeshotswa of the Municipal Corporation will be shared there.
“The civic body will make adequate arrangements of truck and tempo for the collection of idols from all four wards which will be later given to idol makers to reuse them for the next year,” said another official.
