more-in The Ganesha immersion procession weaved its way through Charminar area in old city peacefully, with devotees wearing saffron seen proceeding towards Hussainsagar for the final ritual on Sunday. At around 8.30 a.m., small Ganesha idols in various avatars on cars, auto-rickshaws and two-wheelers made their way towards Tank Bund and other immersion points in the old city. However, the main procession line was formed at around 1 p.m. and for the first time in the recent past, the Balapur Ganesha idol, another famous one in the State, reached Charminar by 1.30 p.m. South Zone DCP V. Satyanarayana said the last idol left the old city at around 10.30 p.m. Talking to The Hindu, he said nearly 1,500 idols, including medium-sized and large ones, joined the main procession at Tank Bund from South Zone on Sunday. According to him, about 1,200 were immersed in Hussainsagar and other 300-odd idols were taken to Rajanna Bowli and Mir Alam Tank. Mr. Satyanarayana said over 50 people, including religious leaders and those from political parties , were detained and let off after the immersion. “We have 15 hypersensitive and 40 sensitive areas and no untoward incident was reported in any part of the old city,” he said, adding that over 3,000 police personnel of various ranks were deployed in the area for security. To allow the ‘Asr’ afternoon prayers at Mecca Masjid, the cops had switched off loudspeakers and had asked the organisers to stop the drumbeats and halt the procession. In the evening, Home Minister Naini Narshimha Reddy along with DGP M. Mahender Reddy and other senior officials undertook an aerial survey of the immersion procession in the city. Earlier in the day, Hyderabad Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (CAR) M. Shiva Prasad and several other senior officials oversaw the procession in frequent shifts. At noon, Ramesh Mudiraj, a tailor from Begum Bazaar, along with his family members, came to Charminar and immersed clay Ganesha idol in a bucket of water.

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