Immersion: govt failed to present all facts & orders: Utsav Samithi

Hyderabad: The Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi on Sunday charged that the State government failed to present all facts and earlier orders with regard to immersion; if this was done, the present stalemate would not have cropped up.

At a meeting of the samithi its leaders opined that the government lacked sincerity. A leader alleged that the government did not file all papers when the court directed it to file an affidavit suggesting a balance between devotion of devotees and protection of lakes.

"Neither the advocate-general nor the additional advocate-general, not even an experienced government pleader attended the crucial hearing. A young and innocent government pleader was sent for hearing on such an important issue, the Samithi leader said, adding authorities sent an affidavit ten minutes before the hearing at 10.20 am.

The leader said that the government issued GO 233 on July 27, 2001, stating that only idols which are made of plaster of paris shall be used. Why did the government not place these orders before the court, he questioned. On earlier occasions, the division bench permitted the immersion of idols, but wanted these to be removed within 24-hours. Even these judgements were not brought to the notice of the court, he pointed out.

The samithi leaders said the division bench had adjourned the case three times so that the government could file an appropriate action plan for immersion of idols, but the government purposefully did not choose to approach the court with clean hands and did not place all the relevant facts in proper perspective.

BJP legislator T Raja Singh took exception to the notice given by the police asking devotees not to immerse idols at Tank Bund. He questioned without showing alternatives how can the police give notices. If the government stops the immersion of idols at Tank Bund they would place the idols at Pragathi Bhavan, warned the BJP leader.