At a joint meeting of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the police yesterday to discuss security and other issues during the upcoming Ganapati festival, Deputy Mayor Deepak Mankar urged the Police Commissioner to withdraw all 70 cases of noise limit violation filed last year against various mandals. The request was rejected.
Cryptic message
Police Commissioner Gulabrao Pol said the police could not take back the cases, but cryptically added that mandals need not worry about these things. The meeting also saw the attendance of representatives of about 200 Ganesh mandals.
The police had filed cases of noise pollution against 70 mandals last year, which included some of the ‘Manache Ganapati’. Despite court orders to the contrary, Mankar also sought the granting of permission for playing of traditional musical instruments throughout the night on immersion day.
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Ashok Godse, president, Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati Mandal, indirectly expressed the fear of having to fight court cases, saying: “Please give us justice.” Pol told the Ganapati mandals that nobody should be bothered about the cases. u00a0Backing Pol’s statement, Baburao Chandre said Deputy CM Ajit Pawar had already started the process of scrapping these cases.u00a0
Only two box arches
It was decided at the meeting that not more than two box arches would be permitted. Several mandals urged for up to six to eight box arches as these brought in ad revenue, but Pol ruled it out. “There will not be any compromise on security,” he said. “We can’t violate Supreme Court orders and state government directives.”
The civic chief urged mandals to follow the norms of not erecting pandals that occupied more than a third of the road and asked them to go for a CCTV network. Mayor Vaishali Bankar declared the prize for best Ganapati mandals had been increased three-fold. u00a0
Other issues raised at PMC-cops meet
>> PMC has not yet given its share of Rs 10 lakh from the Mayor’s Fund for the 14 CCTV cameras on the immersion route and the Mutha river
>>u00a0u00a0PMC’s one-window permission system not yet functional u00a0
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