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Ganesh Chaturthi, one of the biggest Hindus religious festival celebrated in Maharashtra, depicts the birth of deity Lord Ganesha, has started from today amid security arrangement to avoid any harmful or violent incident.

More than 19,000 of the 45,000-strong Mumbai police force have been deployed in different parts of the Mumbai to mark a peaceful Ganesh Mahotsav which will carry on for 10 days.

CCTV cameras have been installed at big Ganesh mandals which would take up Ganesh yatra, making secure and full detection of participants and crowd, police said.

Specially, for the most popular Ganesh mandals, Lalbaugcha Raja, where more than a crore devotees participate, including film celebrities and politicians, the state police have been made tight security arrangements, as per source.

For preliminary help, the Maharashtra government has sought 20 central paramilitary force companies during the Ganesh festival, reducing the burden on local police, Home Minister, R R Patil said in a statement.

Among them, companies are of State Reserve Police, CRPF, RAF and 2,500Civil Defence jawans are included who will have deployed at different locations during festival. Addition, 12 bomb defusing squads and 4 vans with cameras are also posted.