More than 35,000 police personnel have been deployed across Mumbai to ensure incident-free immersion of idols of Lord Ganesh today on the occasion of ‘Anant Chaturdashi’, which marks the culmination of the 10-day festival.
Besides this, a huge deployment of 23 thousand employees around the city will take care of various aspects for hassel free culmination of the event. About 5,000 CCTV cameras will keep a close watch on immersion, which is expected to be low-key sans processions this year in view of COVID-19 restrictions.
Various wings of the police department including the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), Riots Control Unit, Rapid Action Force (RAF), and Home Guards will be manning the streets today. In a bid to avoid crowding, police have appealed to people to not perform ‘aartis’ at the immersion spot. Instead police have asked people to perform the ‘aarti’ ritual at their residences before stepping out.
Mandals or groups that organise community Lord Ganesh festival have been directed to strictly follow COVID-19 norms like maintaining social distancing and wearing of masks. Besides, it has appealed to the people who reside in containment zones or sealed buildings to immerse the idols of Ganesh at their home itself in a large utensil. The civic body has also created idol collection centres where the idols will be collected and immersed by civic teams.
Immersion of idols will take place at 445 spots identified by Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.
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