Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday asked all social and cultural organisations to hold and observe the Ganesh festival in the State with simplicity and a socially conscious manner, keeping in mind the threat of the pandemic.

The 11-day Ganesh festival starting from August 22 is the largest public festival in Maharashtra. Traditionally it has been a time of mass gathering with lakhs of people thronging public places for Ganesh puja. Mumbai and Pune, the largest Covid-19 hotstops in Maharashtra, celebrate Ganesh festival on a mega scale.

At an online meeting held by Thackeray at the State Secretariat along with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and citizen association and unions responsible for observing the festival, the CM said care would be taken to ensure that the tradition is not be broken under any circumstances but the festival celebration has to be carried out in a socially conscious manner, which will avoid crowding.

He appealed to the organisations to celebrate this year's festival by implementing socially useful programmes and thanked them for their generous support to the Chief Minister's Assistance Fund.

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