Broken and damaged Ganesh idols were found at a storage site near the Mulund dumping area after the festival immersion period, prompting Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Avinash Jadhav to question how Mumbai handles idols after visarjan.
Jadhav inspected the area and criticised the arrangements made by the municipal administration. According to the report by Loksatta – Thane, several idols were seen lying in broken condition and as remnants at the site. The report does not specify the total number of idols or identify the agency responsible for the storage location.
The sighting has renewed questions about the treatment of idols after immersion in Mumbai and Thane. Families and public festival committees traditionally perform prayers and aarti before immersing the idols. The post-immersion process, however, involves collection, temporary storage and disposal or recycling, depending on the material used and the arrangements made by civic authorities.
Jadhav said the condition of the idols raised questions about the administration’s management of immersion-related waste. He also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led civic administration, alleging that funds were spent on artificial ponds and immersion facilities without ensuring proper handling of the idols afterwards.
His comments included a political attack on the BJP’s use of Hindutva-related messaging and a call for citizens to raise the issue of idol management with the same intensity as other festival-related matters. He also urged people not to donate Ganesh idols if such conditions continued, according to the report.
The report links the Mulund incident to the wider challenge faced by Mumbai and Thane after large-scale Ganeshotsav celebrations. Immersion sites receive substantial numbers of idols over a short period, creating an operational requirement for collection, segregation, storage and final processing. The material supplied in the report does not provide figures for this year’s immersions, details of the municipal tender, or the official protocol followed at the Mulund site.
It also does not include a response from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or other civic officials to the allegations. The immediate public-interest issue is therefore clear—the condition in which the idols were found—but the responsibility for the site, the planned disposal method and whether the idols were awaiting recycling remain to be established through an official response.
The report does not specify any next inspection, municipal clarification or corrective action following Jadhav’s visit.
