The immersion of Ganesh idols was carried out peacefully in a simple manner across the district on Tuesday.
The COVID-19 scare has significantly reduced the number of public Ganesh idols in Belagavi. Last year, Ganesh mandals installed over 4,000 idols in the district, around 3,000 of them in the city alone. This year, however, despite the State government relaxing the rules to allow public installations, their number is a tiny fraction of the installations in the past.
The immersion procession, that used to be a huge event that went on for nearly 24 hours starting from the afternoon of the 11th day of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, was subdued this year.
The Inspector-General of Police, Northern Region, sought deputation of over 4,000 police personnel and officers from other districts to oversee the immersion procession in the city every year.
This seemed unnecessary this year as there was no procession and very few idols. Mandals desisted from installing large plaster of Paris idols that they were accustomed to.
The government had earlier issued a standard operating procedure that prohibited installation in public places and restricted them to marriage halls, community centres and other buildings. When Bajrang Dal and other organisations opposed this, the government issued revised guidelines allowing public installations. But the prevailing epidemic and the rising number of positive patients discouraged the mandals from installing many idols. The downturn also made the public not to donate to the mandals.
The city corporation had created public immersion ponds in the four corners of the city. The corporation also ran mobile immersion vans that carried huge tanks in which the public were allowed to immerse the idols kept at home. Most of the immersions ended by Tuesday night.
