Mumbai residents clean up Juhu beach after Ganpati Visarjan

Mumbai: With the ten-day long festival of Ganesh Chaturthi coming to and on Sunday with Ganpati Visarjan, scores of residents and college students gathered at the Juhu beach and actively participated in the clean-up drive.

Mumbai Congress President Kripashankar Singh, who also participated in the cleaning rive, expressed his gratitude to the environmentally conscious residents who had articipated in the campaign. "This was initiated by Sunil Dutt (veteran Bollywood actor and politician) and her aughter Priya Dutt, who is a lawmaker and she is carrying forward the tradition. We all, he Environment cell of Mumbai congress, youth congress and the college students are preading the awareness," said Singh. "You can see that members of Municipal Corporation have just provided JCB and trucks or picking up and collecting the debris. Everybody, all young and old, Parikshit Sahni on of Balraj Sahni and a renowned Bollywood actor, has also supported the drive. So, I xpress my gratitude to everybody who has come on Juhu beach and has participated in his cleaning campaign," he added. Meanwhile, Congress MP Priya Dutt Priya Dutt also expressed happiness at the fact that eople were becoming aware of the importance of environment and its impact on the ives of people. "Awareness about cleaning has spread widely. We feel happy to see that people have tarted believing how we can keep our environment clean and how does it affect us. This s why, it`s good that the drive is going well and has spread extensively," she said. Various Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), politicians and residents also joined the tudents in this cleaning up initiative. The annual festival of "Vinayaka Chaturthi" as per Hindu almanac falls between the onths of August and September.t marks the birthday of Lord Ganesha as numerous rituals are performed while a olourful statue of the portly Hindu god marks the event. The festival concludes with the Visarjan (immersion) of idols. The immersion of the idols signifies that the deity returns to their abode after being the guest of the devotees on the occasion of Ganesha Utsav and as such many devout families bid emotional farewell to Lord Ganesha. For the past few years, civic authorities of the city have been requesting the devotees to dump Ganesh"s idols, made of toxic and non-soluble material, in dustbins kept pecifically for the purpose so that it could be easily disposed off later. Most of the debris comprise of flowers, plastic bags, garlands and sweet offerings made o the Hindu god by hundreds of devotees. ANI