BENGALURU: With just a fortnight left for Ganesha Chaturthi, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials seem to have woken up to take action against Ganesha idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP). On Saturday, officials seized 853 PoP Ganesha idols from the southern part of the city.
A statement from the civic body said the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has banned PoP idols as these not just pollute waterbodies, but also the bottom soil. BBMP health officials conducted raids on Ganesha-making units at RV College Road in Basavanagudi, seized the idols and locked them up.
The officials have appealed to people not to buy PoP Ganeshas or those that are painted with lead-based paint.
Selling or buying such Ganeshas are banned, officials said. However, the late action has attracted criticism from within the corporation. According to officials, these drives just before the festival are not effective.
Usually work on making idols with PoP starts in April. “Now officials will announce the ban and conduct drives. And the makers will appeal to the BBMP to allow the idols this time as they have invested money. The officials will allow it on humanitarian grounds. There is no stringent action against them,’’ an official said.
Earlier, only local artistes would make Ganesha idols for the city, but for the past many years, artistes from West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Maharashtra come to Bengaluru to make bigger idols, which now most often have harmful chemical paint.