Hyderabad: Greater bids adieu to Ganesha

Hyderabad: The Ganesh Navaratri festivities concluded on a grand and colourful note on Ananta Chaturdasi day as devotees in large numbers along with idols made their way to water bodies across Hyderabad to bid adieu to Ganesha. The festivities reached a crescendo on Sunday which reverberated with 'Jai Bolo Ganesh Maharaj Ki' and 'Ganapati Bappa Morya... Agle baras ko jaldi Aaa'. This year immersion particularly at Hussain Sagar has special significance since immersion of PoP idols will not be permitted from the next year as per the Supreme Court order.

While the immersion of Khairatabad Ganesh was completed by around 3 pm, the Shobha yatra from Balapur to Hussain Sagar covering about 20 km took off late and because of the delayed start, it continued late into the midnight.

The different dress codes by each of the pandal organisers added colour to the Shobha Yatra. Children, women and elderly persons were seen dancing in joy to the tunes of the Sheri Band in the procession. The Ganesh pandal organisers were seen distributing chocolates, dry fruits along with pulihora.

The mass immersion has been taken up by the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi every year since 1980. Pradip Maharaj from Jharkhand was the chief guest of the Samithi, who addressed the crowds at MJ Market. The Balapur Ganesh, which leads the Shobha Yatra from Old City, reached Charminar at 3 pm and MJ Market at 5 pm. Except for small idols in small auto trolleys, big idols were not seen in the procession route till 2.30 pm. Not many big idols were seen at the Tank Bund even after 6 pm.

The big idols in Tuskers and Trailers started coming from Begum Bazar into the Osmangunj route. The rain also had a role in further delaying the Shobha Yatra. The route towards MJ Market was packed with serpentine queues of lorries carrying idols at around 5 pm.

The police authorities tried to clear the vehicles coming from the Old City and stopped the vehicles coming from the Goshamahal, Seetarambagh, Mallepally, Asif Nagar and Tappa Chabutra. The vehicles coming from Kachiguda were permitted to join the main procession at Abids and Liberty. Several philanthropic organisations organised prasadam stalls at various places along the Shobha Yatra route. Several organisations like Agarwal Samaj, Raj Purohit Samaj, Nine Gems Association, Chatrapati Shivaji Maratha Navyuvak Mandal, Kheteshwar Samaj and others organised stalls. However, there were complaints at a few places that the police authorities were rude to the devotees. The police personnel at Mecca Masjid did not allow cars carrying small idols which led to arguments by the devotees.