In Maharashtra, Ganesh Chaturthi is the biggest festival that is celebrated every year but, this time little to no celebrations will be taking place, due to the pandemic. 

One of Mumbai’s biggest and most famous, Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh festival, will not be celebrated this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. This has happened for the first time in 87 years. 

The organisers of the 11-day Lalbaug festival decided cancel the event, given the current scenario. Instead, the board has decided to hold a health camp this year for 11 days. They said:

We have decided to not celebrate the Ganesh festival this year. We are going to celebrate it as a health festival. This decision has been taken in view of the pandemic.

Instead of celebrating Ganeshotsav in a big way, they have decided to donate 25 lakhs to the CM Relief Fund and organise a blood donation camp and an awareness camp to promote plasma donation. They said:

We will also felicitate the families of policemen and armymen who gave their lives for the country. We are also donating Rs 25 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Fund for fighting the pandemic.

Twitter users were quite happy with their decision. 

The mandal wants to celebrate the Ganpati festival period as a health festival to create awareness and to give priority to plasma therapy so that lives of more patients can be saved. 

With this initiative, they also wish to help families of police personnel who died while fighting the coronavirus battle.

This is highly appreciated.