On a day when hundreds of Vinayaga idols from various parts of the city were immersed in the sea along the Bay of Bengal coastline on Saturday, one of them stood out as unique. Built out of 19-kg silver, it was taken on a fishing boat for immersion at a point about 20 km from the shore.
Ganesh idols are normally made of clay or papier mache. But the organisers, Shiv Sena, opted for silver so as to coincide with the silver jubilee of their organising the Vinayaga Chathurthi celebrations in the city. The idol was installed at Pulianthope and provided round-the-clock security.
The police had initially advised the Shiv Sena not to immerse it in the sea fearing a mad scramble for its retrieval by potential bounty hunters. They later relented as the organisers told them they had no problems with it being picked by anyone from the sea.
To avoid the scramble, the organisers engaged a fishing boat — said to be owned by a person in the team who is a fisherman — and sailed into deep sea with the Rs 20 lakh worth idol from the Kasimedu harbour, hoping that objects dropped at such a distance from the coast do not wash ashore.
“If the idol still washes ashore and someone picks it up, it’s the Lord’s will and we have nothing to do about it,” said Kalaivanan, one of the organisers.
“If those who installed the statue want to immerse it, we have no objections. We only wanted to prevent law and order problems. We have provided adequate security for the idol procession,” said P Loganathan, Assistant Commissioner of Police.
The rest of the immersions, at six places identified by the police in the city, went off without any incident.
More immersions are scheduled for Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.
