27 August,2026 08:47 AM IST | Mumbai | The Editorial
Representation pic
Ahead of the upcoming Ganeshotsav festival, the BMC has instructed its road department engineers to physically inspect all idol arrival and immersion routes across Mumbai's administrative wards. The primary focus of this on-foot assessment is to ensure the roads have smooth surfaces by identifying and fixing potholes, addressing uneven patches, and removing risky speed breakers that could unexpectedly jolt vehicles carrying large idols.
This administrative action follows direct instructions from Ashish Shelar, the Maharashtra Cultural Affairs Minister and Guardian Minister of Mumbai Suburbs, who mandated that all idol routes be inspected within a 24-hour window. Shelar's instructions came a day after two people were killed, and five others were injured, after a 22-foot-tall Ganesh idol toppled on Bhuleshwar Road.
This is all well, and we as Mumbaikars must welcome our most-loved deity with great fanfare. The question this paper asks, however, is why the administration swings into action only when a festival - albeit the city's most important one - is around the corner. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of potholes remain across Mumbai. Several people have died after falling or tripping on these and subsequently being run over by a large vehicle.
On behalf of all Mumbaikars, this paper makes a humble request: treat human life with the same importance as that of an idol. If the BMC can find resources to manually inspect all the roads along the Lord Ganesha's path, surely it can find time to do this for humans too. It is not for nothing that Ganpati Bappa is known as the remover of obstacles.
