Ganesha idols immersed, not all in permitted areas

New Delhi: On Tuesday, thousands of devotees bid adieu to Lord Ganesha as the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi came to an end with the immersion of the idols. With artificial ponds tougher to locate this year, hundreds of idols were openly consigned to the Yamuna water in contravention of pollution norms. Along with the clay images, polybags, flowers and other materials were also thrown unchecked in the river water at several ghats in the city.
While many artificial ponds were created for the immersion of the elephant-headed God's departure, the passage to the ghats were guarded by policemen, who didn't let people through.Devotees who couldn't find the artificial ponds or gain access to the ghats ultimately found a way to reach several unchecked river bank spots mostly upstream of Signature Bridge for the immersion, leaving a trail of pollutants, floating puja materials, polybags, cardboard boxes and other detritus in the river.
Since 2019, Delhi Pollution Control Committee has prohibited idol immersion in the Yamuna. It reiterated the ban recently and reminded people that immersing Ganesh idols in the river would leave them liable to pay a fine of Rs 50,000.
Unlike last year, however, Civil Defence volunteers weren't on duty at roads leading to the river, thus easing the people's access to the banks. "We searched for a pond, but not many of them had been created this year," said a devotee with a large idol on a truck. "But we learnt about this spot on the riverbank where immersions were taking place. That's how we came here."
At Sonia Vihar Pushta-2, local divers were also seen helping people consign the idols to the water. A 14-year-old diver was assisting devotees, taking the festive opportunity to earn some money. Diver Akash said, "I have helped people immerse seven-eight idols since morning and more are expected during the evening. I'm helping those with smaller idols. My brother is managing the large ones."
Meanwhile, some pandals took their large idols out of Delhi for immersion. Mandeep Singh, organiser of the Dilli Ka Raja pandal in west Delhi's Ramesh Nagar, said, "Our idol is big and on the lines of Mumbai's Lal Baugcha Raja. We call it Dilli Ka Raja. Since the idol is very large and the ponds in Delhi are too small for it, we carried out the immersion in Muradnagar in UP, also called Chhota Hardwar." Some groups even travelled to Hardwar for the immersion.
While there was no response to queries from Delhi govt, the district administrations and DPCC on what happened during the day, Delhi Police officials said personnel had been posted at the passages leading to the river to deter devotees, but many of them managed to reach the river through urban forests. "All the roads to the Yamuna were closed. When we received information about people finding their way to the river bank in some areas, we went and sent them to Pusa 7 and 8 in Sonia Vihar where ponds had been made for the immersion," said a police officer.