The police on Monday had called a meeting of 17 major Ganesh including the five Ganapatis of honour and Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati that take out their immersion processions on Laxmi Road and Tilak Road.

The meeting, however, received poor response, as decision makers of most of these Ganesh mandals remained absent.

Singh appealed to the Ganesh mandals saying, “Last year, the procession went on for 28 hours. This year the police and Ganesh mandals should work in co-ordination for ending the immersion procession within 20 hours.”

Singh further said that security is an important issue during the Ganesh Festival. “There are inputs of terrorist attacks in the country. So it is important to end the Ganapati immersion procession as early as possible,” he added.

Singh also appealed the Ganesh mandals to instruct all their activists to avoid consuming liquor during the immersion procession. “The procession goes on for a long time because of those who dance on the procession route in the influence of alcohol,” he said.

Joint Commissioner of Police Rajendra Sonawane appealed the Ganesh mandals to take on new procession routes to avoid crowding on Laxmi Road and Tilak Road. “The past experience is that Ganesh mandals do not follow the orders of police during the immersion procession. So this year we would be appointing liaison officers for about 250 Ganesh mandals. The aim is to maintain proper co-ordination between Ganesh Mandal activists and police during the procession. The liaison officer will be communicating with Ganesh Mandal workers for covering the procession route in proper time,” Sonawane said.

Deputy Commissioner (special branch) Ravindra Sengaonkar said that purpose of the meeting was to sensitise the major Ganesh mandals on Laxmi Road and Tilak Road about security problems and appealing them to take up measures for reducing the time of immersion procession.

“We have special plans to improve the co-ordination between police and Ganesh mandals. We are planning to give identity cards to responsible persons from Ganesh Mandal. They would co-ordinate with our liaison officers during procession,” Sengaonkar said.

Some Ganesh mandal activists said that would not be able start the immersion procession before 7 pm because they have decoration with lot of light. Deputy Commissioner (Zone II) Satish Khandare asked the Ganesh mandals to start their procession earlier and end it in three hours saying, “People would appreciate disciplined traditional dances and music instead of decorations of light.”

Police have called the meeting of all Ganesh Mandal activists at the Shivajinagar police headquarters on Tuesday to hold a discussion on issues related to immersion procession.