No more waste on streets post festival

AURANGABAD: Every Ganeshotsav, processions carried out for Ganpati immersion leave behind them a trail of waste, from flowers and fire crackers to gulaal, as nobody bothers to clean up after the celebrations. But this year, things are looking up.The Shri Ganesh Mahasangh Utsav Samiti, the apex body managing hundreds of Ganesh mandals in the city, has announced that it will clean Aurangabad of the waste left behind by enthusiastic devotees and revellers during processions as soon as the festival gets over.President of the organisation Abhijit Deshmukh, "Besides organizing various programmes for the first time as a part of the Ganeshotsav celebrations, we have also decided to clean the city of garbage, including floral waste and gulaal strewn across streets during processions, on September 16 when the festivities get over.""For now, we have roped in an NGO to pick up floral waste at the pandals. The NGO makes use of this waste to make fertilizer," he added. He pointed out that the civic body has already accepted the organisation's demand to provide special immersion wells for the residents of Cidco-Hudco to stop them from immersing the idols in the Harsul tank that supplies water to 12 wards of the city.Mahasangh had demanded the authorities to a provide special facility or a well closer to Harsul tank for the immersion of Ganesh idols to help residents from Harsul, Jatwada and Cidco-Hudco to immerse idols at this place. Commenting on the recent news of the death of some labourers while cleaning immersion wells, he told TOI, "We have asked the civic administration to clean these wells within eight days of the end of the Ganesh festival to avoid such accidents. The labourers who had entered into the wells to clean them ended up dying after inhaling poisonous gases produced from the waste," adding that the AMC was found cleaning the immersion wells just a week before the start of the festival.He further said that the organisation has encouraged as many as 1,700 Ganesh mandals under the Mahasangh purview to organize public awareness programmes and install tableaux that spread the message of social harmony and fight against vices.The organisation has roped in a team of 20 college students to present street plays at crowded places during the 10-day festival to highlight the evils of rape. "We are highlighting the Kopardi incident, stressing girls to take precautions and learn martial skills for self-defence. The plays are being organised in different parts of the city where large crowds gather for the celebrations," Deshmukh said.In a bid to promote sports, Mahasangh has also a number of competitions like the traditional dhol and fencing. "With the emergence of the DJ and loud sound systems, the traditional dhol has taken a back seat. We want to revive it," he said.He pointed out that the fencing competition has been organised for the first time in the city and has received overwhelming response, thereby giving an impetus to the sport in the city.