The 12-day Ganesh festivities got off to a colourful start in the metropolis on Friday amid tight security and CCTV surveillance, with the Sarvajanik Ganesh mandals erecting pandals with varied themes like Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Chhota Bheem, the celluloid character Bahubali, famous Sripuram Golden temple in Vellore and “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan” to attract crowds of devotees.
The metropolis reverberated to the beating of drums, cymbals and chants of “Ganpati Bappa Morya... Mangal Moorti Morya”, “Ek do teen char.. Ganpaticha jay jayikar and “Sukh-karta Dukh-harta..”, as Mumbaikars took to their homes more than two lakh small and medium-sized Ganpati idols to their homes and Sarvajanik Mandals installed 12,000-odd huge idols across the city, in various modes of transport like trucks, tempos, cars, autorickshaws and two-wheelers.
Notwithstanding the efforts by various sarvajanik mandals to attract crowds through erection of novel and thematic pandals, the spotlight remained on lalbaugcha Raja (King of lalbaug), installed in the Masala lane of lalbaug, GSB Ganpati Mandals at King’s Circle and Wadala and “Andheri cha Raja” where there were huge crowds of devotees to have a glimpse and pay obeisance to the Elephant-headed God.
While the famous lalbaug cha Raja features the idol of the elephant-headed God sculpted to resemble the Korma avatar — the second avatar of lord Vishnu, a 22-ft Ganapati idol at the neighbouring lalbaug Sarvajanik Utsav Mandal is a replica of the spectacular Shripuram temple at Vellore in Tamil Nadu.
Breaking away from the routine, the Moti Baug Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav Mandal will be featuring a 7-minute show on Jungle Book to entertain children. A fight between Sherkhan and Mowgli, a prop of Mowgli tied with a rope that will come down to greet children and scenes of bear jumping and dancing and a tiger roaring will be some of the features that the organisers have lined up.
Another mandal at Khetwadi galli features Ganpati sitting on the shoulders of Chhota Bheem. The Khetwadicha 21 Mukhi idol, which has been made of fibre, is another attraction. The Ganpati pandal of 12 Khetwadi lane features the theme of celluloid’s fictional character Baahubali.
The pandal installed by the famous Sahyadri Krida Mandal of Tilak Nagar at Chembur in north-east Mumbai has the theme of ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan’. This mandal is also supporting the cause of organ donation this year.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis performed Ganpati Puja along with his wife Amruta and daughter, at their official residence “Varsha”. Similarly, senior political leaders like Union Minister Nitin Gadkari of the BJP, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan, both of the Congress, and Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena performed puja at their respective residences.
In an effort to ensure against any untoward incident during the 12-day festivities, nearly 45,000 police personnel have been deployed on the festival duty. Platoons of State Reserve Police Force, Quick Response Teams (QRTs) and para-military personnel will assisting the city police in the bandobast during the festival days. Also on duty are anti-women harassment squads at various places across the metropolis.
In addition to the CCTV cameras set up by various Ganesh mandals, the city police have 5,000-odd CCTVs at strategic places across the city. The city police will monitor the CCTV footage at the police headquarters, regional and zonal offices.
like every year, the city police are taking extra precautions to monitor the situation in and labaug area in south-central Mumbai, where some of the city’s prestigious Ganpati idols have been installed.
Meanwhile, Ganesh mandals across the metropolis have been given strict instructions by the police not to play Bollywood music or hire disc jockeys for the celebrations this year.
The instructions should be seen in the light of the recent amendment to the noise rules that have led to the abolition of 12,537 silence zones, identified by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the use of loud speakers. However, the authorities will be enforcing noise decibel restrictions strictly.