Durga puja committes going ahead with puja plans amid third Covid wave fears
Premium- The preparations for the Durga puja festival in October began in the midst of the fear that the Covid-19 pandemic will cast its long shadow on puja this year too
Amid concerns over a possible third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, organisers of big-ticket pujas in Kolkata are going ahead with their grand plans for the Durga puja celebration keeping in mind the Covid-19 norms.
The preparations for the October festival began for Mohammed Ali Park Puja Committee today with the holding of 'khuti puja' to mark the beginning of the construction of the grand marquee where the goddess and her progeny will be housed on the festive days, according to a PTI report.
The puja, which figures prominently in the must see list of the revellers, has returned to its old venue at the sprawling park in the central part of the city this year. It had shifted to the adjacent fire brigade compound for the past two years due to work on the underground reservoir of the park, the report added.
Due to the change of place to a narrow confine in 2019, there had been a decline in the number of revellers.
The puja committee secretary, Surendra Kumar Sharma said the Durga puja at Mohammad Ali Park has been known for its artistic presentation over the years and hopefully there will be no exception this time.
"As maintaining physical distance is mandatory due to the pandemic, we had to think of a plan that will help avoid the inevitable crowding near the pandals. We are confident that people will appreciate our effort as always," he said without elaborating.
"If the Covid situation does not deteriorate further we hope people will come this year too following the protocols," Sharma said.
The Kashi Bose Lane Puja committee which organises the hugely popular concept Durga Puja off Bidhan Sarani, about two km away in north Kolkata, has also gone ahead with the preparations.
The organisers are planning an artistic pandal open on three sides so that the deity can be seen from outside. The 'khuti puja' fot Kashi Bose Lane puja was held recently.
"We are giving more stress on virtual darshan so that people don't need to physically come to our pandal given that it is COVID time, but see it on their phones and tabs on Youtube in which we will host 3 D images of our pandal and the idols," puja committee Secretary Somen Dutta said.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus toll in West Bengal rose to 18,252 on Tuesday with 12 more people succumbing to the infection.
The tally mounted to 15,34,999 after 639 new cases were detected, , a bulletin issued by the state health department said.
North 24 Parganas accounted for four fatalities, while the city registered one death. Sixty-eight fresh cases were recorded in Kolkata, the bulletin added.
At least 724 more people recuperated from Covid-19, raising the total number of recoveries to 15,06,532. The discharge rate stands at 98.15%.
Bengal currently has 10,215 active coronavirus cases. Since Monday, 40,469 samples have been tested in the state, which took the total number of such clinical examinations conducted so far to 1,61,62,814.
With agency inputs
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