Police, administration ready for Ganesh festival: Prithviraj Chavan

In the wake of July 13 blasts in Mumbai, police were taking all possible security measures to ensure incident-free Ganesh festival, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said today.

"Security measures have been taken in the wake of recent bombing," Chavan told reporters after holding a meeting with top officials ahead of the festival which starts tomorrow.

Security and traffic arrangements for immersion, enforcement of noise pollution norms, etc, were discussed at the meeting, he said.

On the terror alerts, Chavan said, "We keep getting general alerts from the IB and all security measures have been taken."

The meeting was attended by Home Minister R R Patil, Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik, Mayor Shraddha Jadhav, officials of the state Pollution Control Board and office-bearers of the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandals, an association of Ganesh Mandals in the city.

Chief Minister appealed to the people to celebrate the 10-festival maintaining peace and harmony.

Chief Minister said that police would frisk the people at places which attract big crowds. "It may cause inconvenience but frisking would be done where people throng in huge numbers," he said.

On condition of roads in Mumbai ahead of the festival, he said, "Because of the heavy rainfall last week the situation had become difficult. I was informed that following the directives of the municipal commissioner, the potholes were filled on the war footing. 358 potholes would be filled in by tonight as there is no rain today."