Staff Keep PoP Idols Away From Natural Lakes

Hyderabad:As the city immersed lakhs of Ganesh idols, the civic machinery worked quietly behind the scenes to make it a success. Artificial and baby ponds meant to keep PoP idols out of natural water bodies to clay-idol distribution had been readied across the city, while sanitation workers, police, fire personnel, HYDRAA rescue teams, DRF staff and medical teams took their places at every immersion point.

One crane lowered Ganesh idols into the 25-foot-deep baby pond at Malkam Cheruvu on Friday while a second crane pulled idol remains and other waste back out. Six HYDRAA personnel were posted there for rescue work.

“We are here for rescue operations. Teams are deployed at every pond. So far everything is fine, but more people will come in the evening,” said Sheikh Ali, a swimmer deployed at Malkam Cheruvu.

Around 10 to 12 police personnel were on duty during the afternoon, with fire and health teams stationed there. By afternoon, 12 big idols were already immersed, the tallest being 18ft. “The rest of the idols were less than 14ft tall, mostly 7 or 8 ft,” said officials there. “We are expecting up to 60 big idols today.” Cyberabad Municipal Corporation (CMC) projected 4,200 idols and a peak crowd of 10,000 at the baby pond.

The medical team worked from 8 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 8 pm, with one doctor, two ANMs and two ASHA workers in each shift and an ambulance at the site. “We have first aid and provide basic treatment for fever or pain. If anything is serious, we send the patient to hospital,” said Dr Samarpana, who was part of the team.

Sanitation workers swept, emptied bins and moved waste into collection trucks. Some said they had been on duty for 10 days and expected about `20,000 each at the end of the assignment. Several had started as early as 3 am and expected to remain until 6 pm, with no fixed meal breaks. The CMC listed 18 sanitation workers for Malkam Cheruvu across three duty rotations.

The GHMC had 47 immersion points this year at several places. It GHMC deployed 280 cranes, including 110 static and 170 mobile cranes, at lakes and artificial ponds, while about 6,000 sanitation workers were assigned for waste clearance along immersion sites and procession routes.

Overall, CMC planned 53 immersion points across its limits, comprising 33 lakes, 12 baby ponds, six temporary ponds, one portable immersion point and one other pond. Around 1.36 lakh idols were expected, with 82 cranes, 1,145 sanitation workers and 130 toilets.

Durgam Cheruvu showed how that network worked at a smaller scale. Around 20 idols had arrived at the baby pond by afternoon, most of them smaller household idols. Police maintained records of the locality, organiser's name, phone number and whether each idol was made of PoP or mud, and most entries were for PoP idols. A 24-foot Ganesh had been immersed the previous night, while a 12-foot idol came in on Friday.

The artificial pond system also formed part of the environmental push around this year's immersion. Earlier court directions have repeatedly restricted PoP idol immersion in Hussain Sagar and other natural water bodies and directed such idols towards artificial facilities. CPCB guidelines favour natural or biodegradable idol material, artificial tanks and separate collection of flowers, clothes and decorations before immersion.

The Malkajgiri Municipal Corporation (MMC) plan provided for free distribution of 50,000 clay idols painted in natural colours, while communities elsewhere in the city had already adopted clay idols and on-site immersion.

An apartment community in Manikonda has for years immersed its clay Ganesh in a rainwater-harvesting pit, while neighbourhood groups in Neredmet, Nagole and Saroornagar have also used clay or natural materials and local immersion.

However, that was not the case everywhere. Along Hussainsagar, devotees searched for spots to immerse idols directly in the lake even though police warned them against it and a baby pond stood roughly 200 metres away. One man accompanying an idol insisted that it had to go into Hussain Sagar and told others to put the accompanying material into the water as well.