Mumbai: With exactly a week to go for Ganesh Chaturthi, around 1,354 applications for murtikar s and Ganeshotsav mandap s remain stalled because applicants did not present clearances from local police stations and the traffic police department to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). In all, 170 permissions for murtikar s have not been granted due to lack of no-objection certificates (NOC). Another reason for 31 applications not being accepted in Malad is non-payment of a fee of ₹600 to ₹700 by applicants.
Anand Waghralkar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, BMC said 1,153 applications for Ganeshotsav mandap s have been put on hold. “Once the permissions from police and traffic departments are submitted, BMC will grant permissions. We rejected 161 applications for murtikar s and 74 for mandap s as they did not fit into the policy we have framed. The terms and conditions laid down for arranging murtikar s for Ganesh mandap s were not met.”
The highest number of rejected applications for mandap s were from G-North ward comprising Dadar at 25, followed closely by Parel from where 22 applications were rejected. In Lower Parel, BMC is yet to accept any applications, and 86 were pending with the civic body on Friday.
Last month, the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti, the coordination committee of Ganesh mandals, had demanded an online system. The BMC had promised to take the application process online, but said it is still working on the software. Under the new policy, civic officials will grant permissions only to those applicants who have obtained NOCs from the city and traffic police departments.
While awaiting permissions, many mandals have gone ahead and constructed pandals. According to BMC officers, close to 11,000 idols from various mandals are immersed in the city, but only 15% of them have permission to set up pandals.
