Mumbai Ganpati visarjan: Over 66,000 idols immersed on 5th day of the festival

Mumbai, Sep 15: On the fifth day of the Ganpati festival in India's commercial capital Mumbai, a total of 66,299 idols, including 5,953 of Goddess Gauri, was immersed in the sea, rivers, lakes and other water bodies, as per civic officials.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has set up 34,299 artificial ponds across the city to avoid huge crowd gatherings when the Covid-19 cases in the city are still high. Like previous year, it is a low-key celebration due to Covid-19 pandemic. Normally, the 10-day event would have huge crowd gatherings at Ganapati pandals and other places where the idols are installed.

Among the 66,299 immersed idols on Tuesday, 59,153 were of household Ganesh idols, 1,193 Ganpati 'Sarvajanik' (public) mandals and 5,953 idols of Goddess Gauri.

30,636 idols of domestic Ganesh idols, 658 of public mandals and 3,005 idols of Goddess Gauri were immersed in artificial water bodies, the official said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked people to follow Covid-19 norms while celebrating the festival this year as health is more important than the festival.

He said ''We need to work towards eradicating the pandemic permanently by behaving as responsible citizens. In the last two years, we have been forced to impose restrictions in celebrations. People's lives and health are more important than any festival. I am confident Lord Ganesh, who is called Vighnaharta (one who removes all hurdles) will destroy the evil virus,"

"Just like Lokmanya Tilak used the Ganeshotav to inspire people to fight the British, all mandals and organisations should use the festival to create awareness about virus and ensure it is permanently destroyed,'' the Maharashtra Chief Minister added.