Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed the city police commissioner to hold talks with organisers Ganesh Utsav Samiti on the annual Ganesh statues immersion in Hussain Sagar lake.
More than 22,000 statues, each more than a metre in height, were immersed in the lake this year — as part of the annual religious ritual. The tallest of them, from Khairatabad mandal, stood at 18 metres.
Hearing a public interest petition filed by a Hyderabad-based advocate, Mamidi Venu Madhav, a division bench of the court asked police to explore the possibility of reducing the size and number of Ganesh statues immersed in the city’s lake and to submit a report within four weeks.
The petitioner had asked the High Court to intervene and put an end to the immersion of thousands of statues in the historic Hussian Sagar Lake, saying the practice was adding to the already dangerous levels of pollution.
Earlier the bench heard the arguments of the counsel for the Telangana state government on the issue. The counsel argued that any attempt to put restrictions on the size of the statues would create a law and order problem in the city.
Though the petition was filed several months ago, the division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt had allowed the immersion of statues in September with a rider that this will be the last year of immersion.
The bench had asked officials of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation to make alternate arrangements and find other water bodies for the ritual
While the officials were willing to opt for alternatives, the BJP controlled Ganesh Utsav Samiti, the organiser of the event, has refused to budge from its stand that statues will be immersed only in the Hussain Sagar lake.
The High Court had earlier proposed the government to create a new artificial lake only for the Ganesh statue immersion or barricade a part of Hussain sagar lake for the statue immersion and it should be cleaned immediately.
A senior police official said that they would convene a meeting of the Ganesh Utsav Samiti officials and others to discuss the issue after receiving the court orders.
