Cuttack, Sept. 4: Police would enforce preventive measures to ensure smooth running of the upcoming festivals in the city.

A zero-tolerance approach will be adopted against forcible collection of donation during the festive season starting from Ganesh Puja on September 17. An official said action would be taken against offenders and citizens had been asked to report incidents of forcible collection of donations.

At a meeting held yesterday, police commissioner R.P Sharma said the police had launched a special drive to book habitual offenders. "The move aims to keep tabs on mischief mongers and check harassment of people," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.

An official said the immersion ceremony for Ganesh Puja would be conducted in three phases while the clubs and Puja committees had been asked to apply for licence from their local police stations. The police have completely banned DJs and clubs have been asked to complete musical nights and other cultural programmes by 10pm.

The police will launch a special drive to check vulgar and raunchy dance performances by various orchestra and melody groups during Ganesh and Durga Puja in October.

"Raunchy dance performances during the festive season have become a common feature. The cops need to put a check on these by taking to task the groups that encourage it," said Badambadi resident Pitambar Das.

Working president of the Odisha Melody Association Shyam Kumar said the association had urged orchestra groups to impose restriction on revealing clothes of the dancers.

"We have decided to impose a penalty of Rs 2,000 and the association will urge the police to take action, including cancellation of licence, of those groups found violating such direction," said Kumar.

The district administration has issued a directive to repair major roads immediately for smooth immersion of Ganesh idols. It has directed officials of the public works department and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation to complete the restoration before September 17.

Officials have also been asked to complete pending works of the ongoing integrated sanitation project, assisted by the Japan International Co-operation Agency, to facilitate the road repair.