A Ganesh idol being immersed

Eight hundred tonnes of garbage on the city’s roads, 100 gallons of paint down the Husseinsagar lake, 25 cases of missing children, 210 molestation attempts, 20 rapes, 45 road accidents and two deaths.

All between Saturday and Sunday morning.

The farewell to the god who removes hurdles has taken its toll.

“Don’t speak like a communist,” bristled city Congress legislator P. Janardhan Reddy. “Look at how the people enjoyed over the weekend.”

Enjoy they did. Over 10 lakh ? a lakh less than one-fifth of Hyderabad’s population ? walked the road to the freshwater lake with some 15,000 Ganesh idols. By the time the last idols of the elephant-headed god had been laid to the water, 36 tonnes of Plaster of Paris had swelled the lake’s volume.

The government’s wallet, though, was thinner ? by Rs 35 crore. Not a staggering amount, of course, but together with the Rs 310 crore worth of revenue it lost in sales tax as most shops downed shutters for 48 hours, it does add up. But the Andhra Pradesh government did not mind as it continued its patronisation of the festival to court backward-class voters.

But municipal authorities did. They were stunned that the holiday crowds had left behind 800 tonnes of plastic and other waste.

“It is shocking that citizens of Hyderabad can create such chaos in just 24 hours,” said municipal commissioner Sanjay Jaju.

The civic body had to hire some 5,000 sweepers to clean the city overnight so that the capital could be back in shape by Monday morning.

Police commissioner V. Dinesh Reddy was, however, happy that the weekend had passed without any major incident despite several bomb hoax calls. “All kudos to planning and its execution by my team,” he said.

Environmentalists were the saddest lot. “Why should the government facilitate such a procession and immersion in the lake which is already choked with dangerous minerals like lead and zinc and whose aquatic life is endangered?” asked K. Purushotham Reddy of the Centre for Environment Concerns.

The Left parties and the minorities were also unhappy. “Religion is a matter of personal faith. There is no room for government intervention,” said CPM leader B.V. Raghavulu.

“Why not patronise all festivals ? Ramadan, Bakri Id, Christmas ? on a par with the Ganesh festival?” quipped MIM leader Assauddin Owaisi.