The conflict over the processions to immerse Ganesh idols at the end of the 10-day Ganeshotsav festival between the traditionally ‘honoured’ Ganesh Mandals and the smaller mandals in Pune city reached the Bombay High Court on Monday with the 130-year-old Badhai Samaj Trust Ganesh Mandal urging the court to direct the administration to allow the smaller mandals to take out the procession first.
Shailesh Badhai, the president of the Badhai Samaj Trust in Raviwar Peth, petitioned the court to set a time limit within which the five ‘honoured’ Ganesh Mandals should complete their procession on Anant Chaturdashi, the final day of the festival. Alternatively, he said, the court should pass an order that the traditional mandals should allow other mandals to conduct their immersion process before their processions on a first-come, first-serve basis to avoid unnecessary delays.
The Pune Badhai Samaj Trust was established in 1893 by Lokmanya Tilak and is celebrating 130 years. Badhai has filed an application with Pune city police requesting them to allow the start of their Ganesh Mandal immersion procession from Tilak Statue in Mandai to Laxmi Road but the police did not take any decision on it while orally denying the permission. The petitioner said that the Pune city police were granting permission for processions under pressure, and with discrimination.
Badhai has requested the court to make a rule regarding non-discrimination in an immersion procession not for just this year but for all the following years too. He said that there is an unwritten rule that the traditionally honoured five Ganesh Mandals immerse idols first and they do not allow smaller mandals to use Laxmi Road till then. Despite being ready for immersion procession early in the day, smaller mandals have to wait till later – sometimes, till next morning – as the traditional Ganesh Mandals start their procession at 10 am and carry on till later evening to cover a less-than-3 km distance, he pointed out.
In response to an RTI application, the city police communicated that they have no information available regarding the existence of any rule or law that allows the honoured and reputed Ganesh Mandals to use Laxmi Road for procession, with other mandals following them. Any tradition which discriminates between one another is liable to be struck down and discarded permanently, it said.
Badhai also asked the court to direct the Pune city police to keep a check on the limit for the loudspeakers and noise pollution levels during all festivals that have processions and register offences.
Sanjay Balgude of Khadakmal Ali Mandal said it was wrong that select Ganesh Mandals take around 10 hours for immersion procession and thereafter, authorities force around 150 small Ganesh Mandals to complete the procession during the next few hours. “This is injustice to small Ganesh Mandals who suffer due to the situation during the Ganesh immersion procession,” he said.
Balgude had filed an RTI with the Pune city police on Ganesh immersion processions.
