Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made it mandatory for citizens to immerse non-community Ganesha idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) in artificial lakes.
This is to encourage people to reduce pollution and the civic body is planning to increase the number of artificial lakes to 100 in order to avoid any inconveniences.
The assistant commissioners of all the 24 administrative wards in the city have been directed to take a review and make arrangements for 3 to 4 artificial lakes in each ward.
The BMC has announced a complete ban on PoP idols in the city during the Ganesha festival in 2023. It has also made it mandatory to mention 'PoP' on these idols so that they can be identified during immersion.
The civic body has also appealed that the non-community idols should not be more than two feet and the height of idols for public pandals be as low as possible.
Online permission is being given through a singlewindow system to erect Ganesha pandals in the city.
Approximately two lakh non-community idols in the city are worshipped every year. The BMC's concept of artificial lakes has received a good response from citizens over the last few years.
As a result, the civic body will be increasing the number of artificial lakes this year.
