Ganeshotsav 2025: Bhayandar residents booked after clash with civic staff

Villagers forced entry and immersed their idols in the lake. Pic/By Special Arrangement

The Bhayandar police registered an FIR against 26 to 30 devotees for allegedly breaking the gate of a natural lake in Rai Village and performing Ganpati Visarjan there on August 28, during the 1.5-day visarjan.

The complaint was filed by Yogesh Gunijan, assistant municipal commissioner (AMC) of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC).

This year, MBMC set up 35 artificial ponds across Mira-Bhayandar for idol immersions and locked natural lakes to prevent water pollution, also putting up banners prohibiting visarjan. Despite this, residents of Rai Village demanded permission to use their lake and told the civic body they would not immerse idols in artificial ponds.

A police officer said, "The corporation staff told them to conduct visarjan only at artificial ponds to avoid water pollution. However, villagers insisted the lake belongs to the village, they pay taxes, and had even built a safety wall last year for visarjan. They also argued that their idols were made of clay."

Some villagers also produced video clips, claiming MBMC had permitted residents of neighbouring Morva village to perform visarjan in their natural lake, and demanded the same.

"The villagers broke the lock of the lake gate and entered by force. They also pushed assistant municipal commissioner Yogesh Gunijan. Later, some of them jumped into the water and immersed idols in the natural lake," the police officer added.

35
No. of artificial ponds set up by MBMC