(S.Ravi Seshu)
Height of Khairatabad Ganesh idol has become a serious bone of contention between the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi (BGUS) following the Telangana government’s determination to implement the High Court’s cap on the height of the idols.
As the next court hearing is approaching, the Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma held a high-level meeting with officials and BGUS members to impress upon them the need of complying with the court directions. He solicited the views of the Samithi on this issue while directing the Pollution Control Board to conduct awareness campaigns with idol manufacturers to use natural colours and also to promote use of eco-friendly idols.
The height of the Ganesh idol at Khairatabad gets increased every year and the organisers are planning to erect an idol as big as 58 or 60 feet this year.
In April 2016, the High Court directed the state government and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation to restrict the height of idols between 15 to 20 feet. It also asked the GHMC to ensure that clay is used in making the idols instead of POP and also take up publicity campaign against use of artificial colours and POP in making of idols. The court asked it to coordinate with the BGUS for installation of idols less than 15 foot tall in the forthcoming Ganesh festival and adjourned the case to July 4.
Taking part in a TV live show on Thursday night, the GHMC Mayor B.Rammohan and BGUS General Secretary Bhgawantha Rao got into a heated discussion on this issue. The Mayor sought to know which ‘Agama Shastra’ or any other religious scripture mentioned about the size of idols and asked devotees to avoid pollution to make Hyderabad a global city.
Taking strong objection to imposing a cap on the height, BGUS’ Rao sought to know the basis for the 15 ft cap. “Why should government meddle with devotees’ religious sentiments? Who gave the GHMC the power to restrict the height of the idols?,” he questioned arguing that the Samithi should be convinced on the height of the idols.
Not to rub shoulders the wrong way on the sensitive issue, the Mayor paid heed to the Environmentalist Purushottam Reddy’s suggestion to convene a meeting with the BGUS to find an amicable solution. BGUS has been organising the annual Ganesh idol processions and immersions during Ganesh Nava Rastrulu for the last 32 years. The number of pandals rose to 1500 in 1980 to about 55,000 by 2015.