Mumbai: 1,106 Ganpati mandals await permits

With around two weeks left for Ganeshotsav, more than 1,100 Ganpati mandals have yet to get permission from different agencies to put up pandals. The speed bumps range from website glitches to delay from Police and Traffic departments in issuing No Objection Certificates (NoCs).

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) says till August 28, it had received applications from 2,579 mandals. Of these, 544 were rejected due to various reasons such as insufficient documents, pending charges from previous years and inadequate space near the pandal for movement of emergency vehicles.

For the first time, BMC has implemented an online system to accept applications, bringing all agencies — Traffic Police and Police — under one platform. When mandals complained of glitches, the civic body had to go back to accepting hard copies. However, it continues to issue permission online.

Till August 28, BMC had issued permission to 927 mandals, with the maximum permissions granted concentrated in Dadar and Grant Road area (77), followed by Andheri (East).

That leaves around 1,106 applications hanging with various agencies. BMC claims that applications of 362 mandals have been approved by the assistant commissioner of respective wards but are pending clearance due to non-payment of the mandatory fee of Rs 100.

The maximum applications came from Andheri (East) (212) and 77 of them are still pending permission. Of these, the application of 94 mandals have been cancelled. Chembur saw the second largest number of cancelled applications at 46, for various reasons.

Deputy municipal commissioner Narendra Barde said BMC denied permissions to mandals whose pandals encroached footpaths. "As per the court order, it is the fundamental right of a pedestrian to have clear footpath, even during festivals," said Barde. He added that the rejected mandals can apply again and their application will be cleared if they comply with all the rules.

Meanwhile, the civic body has extended the date for submission of applications by three more days, i.e 31 August.