Devotees offer prayers online

BHUBANESWAR: With gates of puja mandaps closed for devotees, several puja pandals in the city streamed Saptami rituals live on social media.According to organisers of the Saheed Nagar Puja Samiti, around 2,000 people watched the rituals live on the samiti’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Saheed Nagar Puja Samiti secretary Narayan Mohapatra said the response to online ‘darshan’ was good on Friday and it is expected to increase during the next three days.

Puja committees of Rasulgarh, Bomikhal and Station Bazaar also streamed the rituals at their pandals live.
Devotees said the online facility helped them get ‘darshan’ of the Goddess amid the Covid-9 situation. “We were apprehensive about getting darshan of Devi Maa after a ban was imposed on devotees’ entry to mandaps. But, we are thankful to the puja committees for streaming the rituals live on social media”, said a resident of Sahid Nagar, Jitendra.

Bomikhal Durga Puja Samiti convenor PR Jena, however, said the online response to puja was much less than compared to the number of visitors who used to visit pandals every year. The puja pandal at Bomikhal has been barricaded and police deployed to prevent devotees from entering the mandap.’

Like Cuttack, puja committees of Bhubaneswar have not been able to adorn the Goddess with gold and silver jewellery this time owing to the height restriction. Many have prepared ‘zari’ ornaments to decorate the deity.