The TRS government and the Hyderabad civic body officials are in a fix as the Telangana high court on Monday refused to alter its orders prohibiting immersion of Plaster of Paris Ganesh idols in the Hussain Sagar lake and other such water bodies in the city.
Hussain Sagar is a large water body in the heart of the city where thousands of Ganesh idols are immersed every year, including the 40 feet tall Khairatabad Ganesh, as a mark of culmination of the 10 day festivities. Ganesh puja this year commenced on 10 September.
Though concerns were being raised and court cases filed about the environmental impact, water pollution caused by the PoP, chemical-laced colours and other materials etc., used in the idol making, the successive state governments and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation have apparently failed to offer a feasible alternative.
Reviewing one such petition against the idol immersion, the high court had on 9 September put a ban on PoP idols submersion in the lake. The court stated that PoP idols could be taken to the small ponds created for the purpose by the GHMC. Officials have now reportedly submitted that these ponds would be inadequate.
The court on Monday took up a review petition filed by the GHMC seeking its approval for PoP idol immersions in the lake this year. The court has declined to modify its orders, and asked the officials to plan alternative arrangements.
The GHMC review petition also came after the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi, the umbrella body of the pandal organisers in the city, appealed to the K Chandrasekhar Rao government to do so.
Some of the TRS ministers had also hoped that the court would offer relief. “Ganesh idols are already put up everywhere. We assure that the lake would be cleaned within 48 hours of immersion,” said Srinivas Yadav, animal husbandry minister, on Sunday.
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Published 13 September 2021, 15:41 IST