Pimpri: As many proceeded for immersion of Ganesh idols on the fifth day of the festival i.e. on Tuesday, not a single Ganesh Idol was donated to green activists this year, thanks to the aggressive stand taken by right wing organisations against idol donations.
Since Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has decided to withdraw its support to green activists, the activists too have stopped collection of idols this year.
On Tuesday a large number of Ganesh idols were immersed as per the tradition as it was the 5th day of the Ganesh festival.
There were no volunteers appealing to people to donate their idols and they were directly immersed in the Pavana river.
Mayor Nitin Kalje supported the stand taken by right wing organisations. He said, “Since it is a question of religious beliefs it is up to an individual whether to donate the idol or not. No one can force them either way.”
Some activists attribute this to the recent change in power in PCMC and claimed the idol donations have stopped as right wing activists have become aggressive. The right wing activists have appealed to people to not donate the idols and instead immerse them in the flowing water.
This year activists claimed they are helpless as PCMC is not actively supporting them. Last year over 20,000 Ganesh idols were collected from immersion ghats in the city.
Environment activist Rajiv Bhavsar said, “There are other reasons responsible for pollution of rivers but immersing idols in the river is not environment-friendly. We are going to discuss this situation in a monthly meeting of environmental organisations in the city.”
