Jamshedpur: Devotees bid adieu to Maa Durga, about 500 idols immersed 

Jamshedpur: Amidst tight security arrangements, the Durga Puja, one of the greatest festivals of the city, ended with immersion of idols of Goddess Durga in the rivers all over. Thousands of devotees, including the men, women and children joined hands to say ‘Asche bochor abar hobe’ (See you next year).

Festivity gripped the devotees as married women smeared the goddess and her children with red vermilion and offered sweets and prayed for the well-being of their families and long lives of their husbands.

DC Vijaya Jadhav Rao said that strict security arrangements were made at the river banks of Kharkai and Subarnarekha. No untoward incident has been reported so far.

The DC and Senior Superintendent of Police Prabhat Kumar congratulated all the senior administrative, police officers, magistrates, police forces, personnel, Central Durga Puja Committee members, various committees, NDRF, Civil Defense, Para Military Force, TSUISL and all the residents of the district.

Steel city witnessed peaceful immersion of idols at 12 rivers ghats. In all 494 idols were immersed on a day which was incident free barring a few minor skirmishes.

There was adequate police deployment in the areas and things moved smoothly. Law and order machinery was pressed into service with full speed to ensure peaceful conduct of the festival, with additional police force being deployed at several strategic locations. About 371 magistrates and more than 400 police officials across 11 blocks and 33 police stations in the district were deployed.

In the morning, married women smeared the goddess and her children with red vermilion and offered sweets and prayed for the well-being of their families and long lives of their husbands. People were seen standing in long queues in front of the pandals for their turn for darshan of the Goddess.

Meanwhile an official of the Jamshedpur Kendriya Durga Puja Samiti cited helplessness not only over cleaning of river ghats after immersion but also on puja committees adhering to their suggestion of using environment friendly articles on idols. “It is now the job of the administration to monitor and ensure that puja committees follow the norms. We are not a regulatory body,” said the official.