Pune: At least 150 Ganapati mandals received letters from Pune police on Saturday stating that they were denied permission to participate in the main immersion processions on Laxmi Road, Kumthekar Road, Kelkar Road, and Tilak Road on Friday.These 150 mandals were granted temporary permission to participate for two years. They joined 900-odd other mandals on the four routes, and the volume of mandals often delayed the immersion by many hours, a top police officer told TOI.The mandals are from Shivajinagar, Bibvewadi, Model Colony and other parts of the city. In recent times, immersion processions have been going on for 30 to 34 hours.Police said a policy decision was made at a high-level meeting between Pune Municipal Corporation and top police officers to curtail the delays.Deputy commissioner of police (Zone I) Krushikesh Rawale issued the letters. Members of several affected mandals reacted sharply and said they would immerse their idols in the river near PMC without any procession in protest.This year, there are 4,170 mandals in the city, up from last year’s 3,959.
