Nashik: Nashik Municipal Corporation and NGOs of the city will go all out to ensure that Ganapati idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) and Nirmalya (flowers and garlands that are offered as part of religious celebrations) are immersed only in the 46 artificial tanks set up by the civic body at various ghats across the city.Over 20 NGOs and college students have come forward to lend a helping hand to NMC in its attempt to prevent pollutants from flowing into River Godavari.“Our staff along with volunteers of NGOs will be stationed at the ghat from Sunday morning to educate and convince devotees to immerse PoP idols and Nirmalya in the tanks,” NMC officials said.NMC has already declared that it will provide ammonium bicarbonate free of cost to devotees so that a solution can be made to immerse PoP idols.“We had taken similar efforts to convince devotees to opt for eco-friendly immersion. Our efforts paid off as we collected about 1.69 lakh of idols from artificial tanks last year, on immersion day,” a senior NMC official recalled.What comes as evidence that the desire to keep Godavari from pollution is catching among the people of Nashik is the fact that several devotees have declared that they will be immersing idols in their houses rather than in the ghats.“The benefit of in-house immersion is that we can mix the clay in our garden. Through this, Lord Ganesha remains with us the entire year,” said Kuntak Gaidhani, a resident of the Old City.According to a Govind Nagar resident Gautami Kulkarni, “Since immersion of idols in rivers and ponds pollutes water bodies, I have been using a steel drum at home for immersion in the past two years.”Many Mandals now have permanent idols and don’t immerse them. Rather, they only immerse a small clay idol. As the auspicious immersion Muhurat is by 2.30 pm, many Mandals have decided to opt for in-house immersion.Various social organisations have already geared up to help NMC in ensuring immersion of the PoP idols in the tanks. Members of the Students Action Committee at MVP College kicked off an awareness drive 10 days back to drive home the point among the devotees to immerse PoP idols and Nirmalya in the tanks. They will assist NMC staff on the immersion day at the ghats.

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