Community pujas to be perform without idols
Jamshedpur, Sept. 8: The Jamshedpur Durga Puja Kendriya Samity (JDPKS), apex body of Durga puja committees, has started zone- wise meetings with puja organisers in view of the festival scheduled from October 22 to 26. The meetings are aimed at taking feedback from puja organisers in view of the pandemic.
The committees have been asked not to include dhakis, bhog, lighting, decoration and big budget pandals. They have been asked to include worship of small idols.
Organisers of community puja at flats and housing societies have been asked to perform rituals without idols. They have been asked to use photographs of Goddess Durga.
�We have holding meetings with puja organisers for taking their feedback and suggestions on the restrictions. The idea is to ensure a risk-free and peaceful celebrations without hurting the sentiments of people,� JDPKS general secretary Rambabu Singh said.
The apex body of Durga Puja committees in the city has plans to make Durga Puja celebration a simple affair. In view of the coronavirus pandemic the organisers have decided to celebrate a toned down festival.
In Jamshedpur alone, an approximate of around 320 pandals are built every year to mark the festival, that apart from that, numerous smaller pandals are also set up in different neighbourhoods.
The lockdown ordered by the Centre had also recently affected the celebrations for Ram Navmi, as people could not participate in rituals or customs and could not take out processions.
� We have been asked by Kendriya Samity to take measures to celebrate the festival in a simple way. We will not spend much on pandal building. Expenses will be controlled. We will rather try to spend on social causes rather than decoration,� said a member of the committee.
Months in advance the preparations for Durga Puja begins. But this time, there is no rush to make Durga idols. By this time, usually fifty percent work was completed every year. But this year, all the work has been stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic. Artists are facing a lot of uncertainty about this year’s Durga Puja. They have been waiting for the lockdown to open. The place where artists make sculptures has now become a playground for their children.
The importance of the Durga Pujas as the defining cultural event of Jamshedpur is inextricably tied up with the very scale of performance of the contemporary city festival with the spread of the more than 300 and more units of licensed big and small Pujas, with the blitz of advertising and publicities, with the profusion of awards and sponsorship, with the spectacle of artistry and craftsmanship, and with the indispensable presence of large touring crowds.