For the first time, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has refused to refund the deposits of 52 Ganesh mandals in the city and suburbs for damaging roads to erect pandals.
There are 1,055 big Ganesh mandals in the city. In its attempt to keep the city free of potholes, the BMC denied permission to many of them to put up pandals on the roads. Those that were allowed were told to ensure that the roads were not damaged and asked to pay a security deposit of Rs2,000 per road being used by them, refundable on confirmation that no roads were dug up.
While 52 mandals have been penalised, the total amount forfeited by them is Rs3,72,000.
Members of the affected mandals are not very happy with what they see as the BMC’s ‘strict approach’. “How can we set up a pandal without digging the road?” said Ashish Shelar, BJP corporator and president of a Ganeshotsav mandal in Bandra (West). “There are no open spaces in the city where we can set up pandals. The only option we have is the roads.”
Narendra Dahibawkar, secretary of the Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti (coordination committee of all Ganesh mandals), said, “A few of the mandals in the western suburbs had received notices during the festival itself.”
When contacted, Sudhir Naik, deputy municipal commissioner, said the BMC decided to seize the security deposits only after ensuring that the mandals had damaged the road. “We will now start repairing the roads,” he said.
