No PoP Ganesha immersion in water bodies, HC firm on ban

Hyderabad: The ban on immersion of Ganesh idols made of plaster of Paris (PoP) in Hussainsagar and other water bodies would continue this year too, the Telangana high court made it clear on Friday.A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice NV Shravan Kumar passed the interim order while resuming hearing in a petition filed in 2022 by the Telangana Ganesh Murthi Kalakaar Welfare Association of Dhoolpet in Hyderabad, contending that the decision of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to ban making of PoP idols would adversely affect their livelihood.The petitioner association had challenged the validity of the revised guidelines issued by the CPCB which had banned even the making of PoP idols altogether. However, last year the HC had imposed the ban on PoP idols’ immersion in Hussainsagar and other water bodies while keeping the issue of CPCB norms pending.On Friday, after the HC directive to continue the ban this year too, the state along with GHMC and HMDA assured the court that they would make alternative arrangements such as construction of baby ponds near Hussainsagar and at various other places to facilitate immersion of PoP idols. They also assured the court that they would make arrangements to cleanse them after immersions.After state's special counsel Harender Pershad said that the revised guidelines of the CPCB were upheld by NGT, the high courts of Telangana and Bombay as well as the Supreme Court, senior counsel M V Durga Prasad, who appeared for Dhoolpet idol makers, countered it and said that PoP was not the devil it was being made out to be.“In fact it cleanses water. The failure of the authorities in cleansing water bodies after every immersion season need not be thrust on poor idol makers,” he said. The bench said it would examine the validity of the CPCB guidelines on September 25. Mamidi Venu Madhav, the counsel who had filed the petition seeking a total ban on immersions in water bodies, however, charged the state with allowing immersions of PoP idols in water bodies including Hussainsagar despite court directives. “It happened last year and it will happen this year also,” he said. The bench said he can bring any such violations to the notice of the court while also directing the authorities not to allow PoP idol immersions in any water bodies.