Dip to say goodbye to Ganesha turns fatal for 3

New Delhi: A youth drowned and two of his friends were rescued while they had gone to immerse Ganesha idols in northwest Delhi. In another incident, two men were swept away by the strong current in Bawana canal.
In the first incident, the body of an 18-year-old youth, Ankit, was fished out of the Yamuna in northwest Delhi. The incident took place when he had gone to the Yamuna bank near Palla village in Alipur along with his family and friends.
Ankit and his two friends jumped into the water, but were swept away by the current.Divers rescued his friends, but Ankit drowned. The survivors are undergoing treatment.
The other incident took place in Bawana canal. Sandeep (22) and his friend Jitender (23) were swept away by the strong water current. They were untraced till late on Thursday.
Meanwhile, traffic in the city was also thrown out of gear as hundreds of devotees headed to the Yamuna to immerse Ganesha idols. Peak hour traffic was affected as revellers blocked the arterial roads. People were stranded on Ring Road in central Delhi for over four hours due to this.
The worst affected areas were Nizamuddin, Ashram Chowk, Vikas Marg, Laxmi Nagar, ITO, Shaheen Bagh, Kalindi Kunj, Paharganj, Sikandra Road and Kashmere Gate. However, the ripple effect of these jams stretched to almost five kilometres.
Though extra personnel had been deployed to regulate the traffic, the policemen had a hard time controlling the crowd as the number of processions were 30% higher than last year.
Police estimate that more than 20,000 people came out in the evening to go to the ghats. There were more than 3,000 trucks carrying idols for immersion at Nigambodh Ghat, Geeta Colony Ghat, Qudasia Ghat and Chhath Visarjan Ghat, said a police officer.
The devotees got down from trucks carrying Ganesha idols and blocked entire carriageways at some places. Hooliganism was also seen with revellers stopping their vehicles and trying to smear colour on passersby.
By evening, the police had to divert traffic going to Noida through DND Flyway and Sarai Kale Khan-Ashram route through Ring Road and NH-24.