With hardly a day to go for the Ganesh festival, more than 1,000 are bracing for a big showdown with the authorities. These mandals have still not received permissions to put up pandals.
With hardly a day to go for the Ganesh festival, more than 1,000 are bracing for a big showdown with the authorities. These mandals have still not received permissions to put up pandals. However, they have decided to still go ahead with constructing pandals without having requisite permissions. The BMC on the other hand warned them of penal actions if they defy the authorities.
As per protocol, the mandals seeking to construct pandals on the street have to send detailed applications to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and obtain permission to do so from the respective wards, the police and the traffic police. While officials in the BMC have said that most permissions were pending owing to clearances required from the police, mandals said they would go ahead with the celebrations as decided, with or without permissions.
Mandal representatives said they were ready to face the consequences of their actions after the 10-day long festival. Currently, there are a total of 1,009 applications pending permissions, of which 151 are pending at the BMC ward level, and 858 are pending clearances from the police. A civic official said, “We will send notices and fine the mandals that have erected pandals with clearances. Clearances are pending as some mandals have not submitted all the documents needed, or have submitted incomplete forms.”
Mandals have blamed the BMC for its delay in granting permissions. Naresh Dahibavkar, president of the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshutsav Samanvay Samiti, said, “The mandals have followed protocol and submitted applications a month before the festival. However, the BMC started giving permissions only by August 16-17. This has led to the delay.”
Mr Dahibavkar has asked all mandals to go ahead with the celebrations as planned, in order to uphold the glory of the festival. He said, “Bureaucratic delay must not dampen the festive spirit. All mandals have been preparing for the celebrations since a month now, so we will go ahead with them.”
Meanwhile, mandals have pointed out that the process to obtain permissions is extremely tedious, and several mandals that have recently mushroomed around the city are not aware of all the documents needed for the permissions.” The BMC has received a total of 2,454 applications for pandals permissions this year, of which it has granted permission to 982 pandals, and rejected permissions for 463 others.
Permissions for 1,009 of them are still pending.
