PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) collected 883 tonnes of nirmalya while 4,029 Ganesh idols were donated by devotees at the ghats from across the city. Some citizens preferred to immerse the idols in the river, while many others decided to immerse their idols in the immersion tanks.
According to the PMC, 1.38 lakh Ganesh idols were immersed in the tanks. PMC Deputy Commissioner Dnyaneshwar Molak said, “In the entire city, 3,000 tonnes garbage was collected by PMC, also 1,300 tonnes waste was collected from immersion route.” The PMC had already appealed to citizens to donate the idols or to immerse them in tanks to avoid river pollution.
The PMC, along with several NGOs and eco-friendly organisations received a good response from residents regarding eco-friendly donations on the last day.
Several NGOs initiated the process of setting up tanks at several ghats, including Lions Club of International District 3234 D2 in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Kishor Moholkar, Chairman of the Water Pollution Department of Lions Club International, said, “With the initiative we collected 7.5 kg nirmalya and more than 2,200 idols donated by people from different ghats.”