Mumbai – Recently at Mulund, Shri Niwas Ganeshotsav’s Ganpati was presented in the mandal with all the items such as Gandhi topi, pot, cotton, diyas, betel nut, salt, coffee beans, Indian Flag, slate, khadi yarn. These are mostly the items, which do not attract any GST tax, i.e., 0% GST is levied on these products. This was primarily done to showcase the positives of the newly implemented goods and services tax.
Goods and Services tax, if we introspect has been one of the most controversial things in the year and one of the most trending one. There have been rumors where people were reluctant to adopt this new reform and hence were unwilling to pay the tax as they felt these would only benefit the other states.
But people need to look into the broader prospects that it has in place, the future developments that it would cater to and the reforms it would bring into the country.
The members of the Mandal had agreed that for this year they would keep the theme of the GST for LORD Ganesha. Mr. Dipesh Yadav heads the team for the mandal. The motivation behind this was that the mandal wants to spread awareness by picking one socio-economic issue every year. Thus the team makes idols based on the theme every year and makes sure that they use eco-friendly materials that are either easy to recycle or can be distributed for someone’s use.
Kalpesh Lodaya, a member of the team, said that there is no use of making the idol and immersing the same that is made from shadu clay. That is eventually going to cause a lot of pollution. Rather he feels that it is the best to dismantle the idol and reuse the products.
A few years ago, he added, the team had used stationary products, which were eventually donated to a school.
Similarly, the team feels that they would be reusing the items the following year and would be distributing few of the items as Prasad. This social awareness activity has helped them a lot in bringing the residents together for a common social issue and has also helped the mandal cut a lot of costs incurred over the years.
Mr. Lodaya added that the people of India need to act responsibly. The religious festival has taken a new route nowadays as it has become competitive. The decorations are important, but if we reduce the decorations and instead come out with unity, the festival is going to last longer with a lot of togetherness and happiness.
The mandal previously as well has made idols to promote and thus bring awareness regarding various social issues such as girl child, ill effects of plastic usage and the importance of following one’s passion altogether.
