Mumbai: On the sixth day of the Ganeshotsav in the city on Wednesday, devotees immersed Ganesh idols in lakes and the sea. The BMC’s disaster management cell confirmed that a large number of immersion took place.
People who could not perform the visarjan on Tuesday, the fifth day of Ganeshotsav, due to the downpour that flooded streets in several parts of the city, conducted the immersion on Wednesday. Even Girgaum Chowpaty saw 10 to 12 Ganesha visarjans on Wednesday. Generally, a large number of private Ganeshas are immersed on the fifth and seventh day of the festival.
Even priests and religious experts had appealed to the people to avoid risks. Mr D. K. Soman, a well-known expert on festivals and rituals, had asked people to conduct a symbolic visarjan at home itself. “You can perform puja and keep the idol aside from its set place. This too amounts to visarjan, according to religion. There is no need to take a risk and venture into the sea or river for immersion,” he said.
BMC officials generally record the numbers of Ganesh visarjans every year. But with rains continuing to plague the city for the last two days, they directed all their focus on rescuing people. “But people have taken their idols to lakes and artificial ponds in the city. A few devotees have immersed their idols in the sea also. But we don’t have the exact numbers now as our entire force is working on the floods and related tasks,” said Mr Patil of BMC.
Many devotees have postponed their fifth day immersion by two days and will now conduct it on Thursday, the seventh day of the Ganesh festival, which is also observed as an immersion day. Therefore, rains permitting, a large number of devotees will come out for Visarjan on Thursday.
