No water, no immersion of Ganesh idols in Latur
Mumbai, Sep 11: Over 10,000 Ganesh idols at Latur in Marathwada region won't be immersed on the 'visarjan' day this year due to acute water shortage in the town, local officials said.
A senior official said there is "not even a drop of water" in the usual six spots in Latur where the Ganesh idols, both public and domestic, are immersed each year.
Latur district collector G Shrikant told PTI that the decision to skip the immersion process is the result of public awareness and was finalised after review meetings of the Ganesh mandals in the city.
"This decision is not solely due to water scarcity.
The big mandals were reusing the idols for the last three to four years. It is a collective decision of the mandals," he said.
The municipal corporation has made facilities for storage of idols in temples, the IAS official said. "If they can be reused and recycled, that will be the best way to overcome the water scarcity," he added.
"We have asked people to perform the 'visarjan' of domestic idols at home like Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis did at his official 'Varsha' bungalow. I will be doing the same," he said.
A local historian in Latur, which is around 500 km from Mumbai, said this will be the first time in over a century that the Ganesh idols in the city won't be immersed.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
