Devotees arrived in large numbers, chanting ‘Ganpati Bappa Moryaa’ and ‘Pudhchya Varshi Lavkar Yaa’ as they bid adieu to Bappa. Several children were seen bursting into tears during the immersion. Kolhapur : With teary eyes and in an emotional atmosphere, citizens bid farewell to their household Gouri-Ganesh idols on Saturday.
In Kolhapur district, 2,000 police personnel and 1,500 home guards were deployed at wells, lakes, streams and rivers to maintain law and order and ensure a peaceful immersion process. The idol donation initiative of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Zilla Parishad received a good response across the district, with over a lakh idols donated to prevent water pollution. KMC had erected barricades at Panchaganga ghat to prevent people from immersing idols in the river. The district administration had also appealed to devotees to use artificial immersion tanks. However, members of the Sakal Hindu Samaj got into heated arguments with KMC officials and police personnel and broke the barricades to immerse Ganesh idols in the Panchaganga river.