Mumbai:
Heading to Juhu beach to say goodbye to your Ganesha? Think again. The seafront is one of the most popular immersion sites in the suburbs, but it's definitely not the safest.
To protect tens of thousands of devotees that will throng Juhu beach today on the seventh day of Ganeshotsav, the BMC has deployed only eight lifeguards. That's not all. The lifeguards have put their hands up saying that they are not trained to save those drowning in the sea.
Before September 1, only four guards manned the beach, which is visited by at least 20,000 people on weekends. Four more were recruited on September 1 on a contractual basis for six months. Though the number of guards have doubled keeping in mind the Ganeshotsav, they are still far from being sufficient vis- -vis the crowd, say sources from the BMC.
What's worse, these lifeguards have little hands-on experience to boast of. Given their inexperience, the guards themselves are concerned about the safety of people on the beach. "I was a coach at a BMC swimming pool at Ghatkopar and frankly speaking I'm not trained to swim in the sea, forget saving someone who is drowning," said Dinesh Maru, a BMC lifeguard.
The lifeguards admit that it's impossible to man the lakhs of people coming to Juhu beach on visarjan days. "There are nine entry points for the beach. We need at least four people to look after each gate to minimise the risk of drowning. But with our strength, guarding all gates will be tough," admitted Arvind Kelvekar, BMC's senior lifeguard at Juhu beach.
To top that, lifeguards are often at the receiving end of the misconduct of rowdy drunks. "The people do not listen to us, they abuse and beat us. It is only when a police officer is with us that they respect us," said Maru, who had broken a finger when someone attacked him.
However, a voluntary organisation, Juhu Beach Lifeguard Association, has come to the rescue of the BMC.
"We are helping out as BMC has ignored the beach safety completely. We have all the equipment like lifejackets, rescue tubes, speedboats and so on. Three of the eight BMC lifeguards don't know how to swim in the sea," said Neville David, president of the association.
The BMC has however approached the association for safety arrangements at the beach.
Assistant Municipal Commissioner Ramesh Pawar of K West ward refused to comment on the subject. The police have deployed around 250 officials, including 25 women officers, to patrol the beach from 4 pm.