But cautions that sound norms may not be flouted; Ganesh mandals have requested that norms be relaxed during the festival.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in
Ganeshotsav comes to the city on September 9 this year, and mandals across the city are gearing up to welcome the elephant god. A meeting yesterday between mandals and the Chief Minister of the State, Prithviraj Chavan, was held to discuss various issues related to the festival, prominent among those being the relaxing of sound norms during the 10 days of the festival.
While the Government gave no immediate assurance on this front, the CM is learnt to have allowed mandals to play traditional music “within reasonable sound limits” till midnight for all 10 days of the festival. Recently, the BMC too, had issued an appeal to mandals to not play music beyond midnight on any of the 10 days of the festival.
Overall, Chavan is learnt to have taken a soft stand against Ganpati mandals in the city. “There were mandals that met with police trouble last year, over law and order problems and over noise pollution norms. If such mandals write to the Government appealing that the charges against them be dropped, the Government will look at the case sympathetically,” he reportedly said. Chavan is also equally sympathetic about new Ganpati mandals mushrooming in the city after Ganeshotsav 2012, and has asked the BMC Commissioner Sitaram Kunte to consider each new case.
Apart from these, Chavan has asked that all mandals help in spreading awareness about the issues, especially terrorism, that currently plague the city. He also wants the BMC to set up CCTV surveillance of visarjan areas, that police train each of the major idol sites in safety, and that monitoring agencies should immediately apprehend those selling spurious mawa and milk during the festival.
(Pictures courtesy DGIPR and mmclaughlin11.wordpress.com)
