Mumbai: Devotees have made generous offerings - in the form of a staggering 80.8 million rupees in cash, 14kg of gold and 250 kg of sliver - to the popular Ganesh idol Lalbaugcha Raja (King of Lalbaug) in south-central Mumbai, during the just-ended 11-day-long festivities.
In addition, the devotees offered a Cartier watch worth 250,000 rupees, a solitaire diamond worth 700,000 rupees to Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal (LRSGM)-installed Lord Ganesh idol, of which nearly one million devotees had darshan during the Ganpati festivities which ended on Sunday last.
The gold offerings made to the elephant-headed diety included a gold bar weighing one kilogram, said to be worth 2.7 million rupees to 2.8 million rupees.
Giving the details of the offerings received by Lalbaugcha Raja this year, LRSGM's treasurer Rajendra Lanjwal said that the cash offerings had shown a steady increase from 50.6 million rupees in 2009, to 70 million rupees in 2010 to 80.8 million rupees in 2011. "However, there has been a fall in the reduction in gold offerings from 20 kg in 2010 to 14 kg in 2011," he said.
Like in the previous years, nearly one-to1.5 million devotees had darshan of 13-foot Lalbaugraja idol. On some days, devotees had formed queues running to a distance of over three kilometers to have darshan of the Hindu deity's idol.
There were scores of foreign nationals - belonging to United States, UK, Nepal, Ghana China, UAE, Mauritius and Australia - among the people who visited LRSGM to have darshan of Ganpati. The foreign nationals have made offerings in foreign currency which the LRSGM officials plan to convert into Indian currency in the coming days.
