Hyderabad: Ganesh idol immersion drawn out to 2nd day!

Hyderabad : It appears that the purpose of convincing the Ganesh Utsav Samiti to move the huge 63-feet Khairatabad Ganesh idol early this year did not yield the desired results.

The idea of moving the Khairatabad idol early was to see that the process of immersion of all the 25,000 idols in Hussain Sagar was completed in a single day so that normal life in the city could be restored from the next day. But it did not happen. Till Friday evening many roads remained blocked and the immersion continued. There were no buses from various parts of the city like Nallakunta, Ramnagar, Barkatpura, Kothi and other places towards Lakdikapul, Ameerpet and other areas causing immense problems for the citizens. Similarly, many roads witnessed huge traffic jams.

The grand processions accompanied by loud sound and dance by devotees bidding goodbye to the Ganesha went on throughout the night and till Friday evening around Tank Bund area.

Hundreds of trucks carrying idols were lined up around the Hussain Sagar. Some of the pandals had stopped their procession for some time during the intervening night and resumed the same around 5.30 am on Friday.

Many pandals flouted the 12 pm deadline for playing loudspeakers. The city police who issued the traffic advisory for a day but extended it on Friday as well. Restrictions on roads that connect the twin cities, Telugu Talli flyover, Secretariat road, NTR Marg and other roads had cascading effect in many other areas as huge traffic gridlock was witnessed.

Police had diverted vehicles at various points leading to frustration among the road users as they were stuck in traffic at various points causing hardship for school and office goers. The worst affected areas were Moazzam Jahi Market, Nampally, Abids, Narayanguda, Basheerbagh, Khairatabad, Liberty and adjoining areas. The authorities who focussed only on Khairatabad Maha Ganapati idol seem to have blinked in regard to other pandal organisers resulting in no change in the situation.

The massive procession which starts from Balapur on the southern part of the city, via Charminar and Moazzam Jahi Market with other small processions joining it also got delayed.

The officials and police blame the organisers saying that they delayed the processions. They say that many processions began only after the sunset. Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi leader Bhagwanth Rao said the immersion of Ganesh should be done only on Ananth Chaturdashi as Pitra Paksham starts from full moon day.