City sees smooth passage of Ganesh idol immersion

Working in tandem, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur City Police saw smooth passage of immersion of idols of Lord Ganesh at end of ten-day festival. The arrangements put in place by Health Department (Cleanliness) of civic body and fine tuning of strategy with police department paid rich dividends this year. A survey of Futala Lake and at other places where artificial immersion tanks were placed showcased very minimal waste at the sites. About 2,92,702 idols were immersed and 179.5 tonnes of nirmalya was collected.

Civic body had arranged 276 artificial tanks and rolled out android app to help citizens zeroed in on the spot easily. NMC had roped in Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) to help citizens dispose of nirmalya and convince them against immersing it in lake.

Moreover, Health Department this year ensured that big idols are immersed at Futala Lake only. They also barricaded other lakes in the city

and this helped in faster cleaning of nirmalya from the sites. A release of Health Department informed that five supervising officers over saw the immersion day. They were assisted by 10 Zonal Officers, 56 Health Inspectors, 151 other field supervisors.

The Nirmalya was collected by M/s Kanak Resources Management who deployed 275 personnel and provided 80 vehicles. NMC on its own also deployed 900 employees at various lakes and immersion points for collection of nirmalya and ensure hassle-free immersion. NGOs like Green Vigil, Rotary Club, JPI Society, Tejaswini Mahila Mandal, Flora and others provided valuable support to NMC during the immersion and helped in collection of nirmalya. Virendra Kukreja, Chairperson, Health and Hospital Committee, NMC, thanked Nagpurians for helping the civic body in keeping the lakes clean. The support of people who immersed idols in artificial tanks was a big help for us.