With ‘Ganesh Puja’ round the corner, the Police Department has said that all the Ganesh pandal organising committees should take permission without fail to set up pandals here in Visakhapatnam. The city police framed a set of rules to be followed by the pandal organising committees this festive season, from August 31 to September 10.
In a release on Saturday, Commissioner of Police, Ch Srikanth said that organisers may apply for permission at the respective ACP offices in the city. Before applying, the committee members should ensure that they collect the required permission approvals from GVMC/Panchayat, Fire department, Electricity department and attach those copies, he said.
Mr. Srikanth said that the committee members should clearly mention about the size, height, weight of the idol apart from planned number of Utsav days and scheduled date of immersion and time. He said that the members should take all the fire safety measures at the pandal without fail and arrange fire extinguishers. They should also ensure no traffic jams are reported near the pandal, he said.
He said that the organisers should also strictly follow Pollution Control Board (PCB) norms and make sure that the sound of loudspeakers are not over 55 decibles during the day and 45 db during the night. Only box type speakers should be used, that to between between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., he said.
He said that there should be no obscene dances, songs and bursting of fire crackers during the immersion procession. He also said that the pandal organisers should not collect money forcibly or even sell darshan tickets. If people come across such cases, they can WhatsApp complaints to 9493336633.
Mr. Srikanth said that they would not allow immersion of Ganesh idols between Park Hotel Junction and Naval Coastal Battery (NCB).
The police will allow immersion in 12 designated places – Dry Jetty (Before Coastal Battery), Spillway jetty, Peda Waltair (Jalaripeta), Jodugullapalem, Sagar Nagar, IT SEZ area beach, Bheemili Beach, Gosthani river, Appikonda Ravala Cheruvu, Racheruvu, Pinagadi Water tank and Narava.
