Committees budget the eleven days and then improvise the twelfth. Visarjan is a single afternoon that regularly consumes a fifth of the festival budget, almost all of it in cash, almost all of it decided on the day.
What visarjan day actually costs
Write these down in the budget in Bhadrapada, not on the truck.
- The vehicle — tempo or trolley, plus the driver and fuel
- Dhol-tasha pathak or a band, usually the largest single line
- Loading and carrying — the people who lift the idol
- Flowers, gulal and the final pooja samagri
- Water, refreshments and snacks for the procession
- Ambulance or first aid if the procession is large
- Municipal or tank charges at the immersion point
- Tips and dakshina — small individually, significant together
The tips line is real. Budget it.
Every committee hands out cash on visarjan day — to the carriers, the driver, the helpers at the tank. Every committee also fails to record it, because it happens in ten small moments while someone is holding an idol. The result is a few thousand rupees that exists in nobody’s books and has to be explained later. Put a line in the budget called exactly what it is, give one person the responsibility, and have them record each payment as it goes out.
Assign a money person who is not carrying the idol
The failure mode is structural: the people who know what was paid are the people physically running the procession. Nominate one committee member whose only job that day is money — pays the vendors, records each payment on their phone, and is not on the truck. It is the cheapest control you will ever implement.
Close the books the same evening
Visarjan is the end of the festival, and it is also the last moment anybody remembers the details. Reconcile that night, while the pathak payment and the tank charge are still fresh. A week later they are folklore.