Durga Puja festival fosters universal brotherhood: CM

Kolkata: With just a few days to go for the mega festival to begin, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she believes that Durga Puja is the greatest extravaganza in the world as it is celebrated by people of all caste, creed and religion irrespective of their financial backgrounds.

"Durga Puja instills love and universal brotherhood in the minds of the masses and love for their civilization as well. When Devi Durga comes, she brings with her an opportunity for lakhs of people to earn a living. It is going on for ages and people from all parts of the globe come to Bengal to soak in the festive fervour," Banerjee said at the inauguration of Samaj Sebi Sangha club on Monday.

Drawing a parallel to the extensive Christmas celebrations that take place in Vatican City, she maintained that Durga Puja is more significant and all-encompassing as it involves people from all communities and economic strata.

Stressing on climate change, she expressed her concern regarding groundwater depletion across the country. "A time will come in the next 20 years when there will be water crisis in several places. We are already taking measures for water conservation and have renovated three lakh ponds, a number of dams have also been dredged and several check dams have been constructed for facilitating irrigation which is important for agriculture," Banerjee said.

The Chief Minister who inaugurated 11 community Pujas on Monday started with Ekdalia Evergreen Club where she launched a campaign on "Save Water Save Life" awareness.

Banerjee said though Ekdalia Evergreen sticks to the traditional style, it is one of the most popular Pujas in the city and draws huge crowd every year. She also added that the city is going to face inclement weather for the next two days and suggested that people should carry umbrellas while venturing out. Subrata Mukherjee, state minister for Panchayats and Rural Development, organises the Puja. Manish Gupta, former Trinamool MP and Debashis Kumar were also present at the function.

The other Pujas that were inaugurated by the Chief Minister includes Falguni Sangha, Singhi Park, Ballygunge Cultural, Hindusthan Park, Shib Mandir, Mudiali Club, Tridhara, Chakraberia and Muktadal.

Banerjee had commenced her Puja inauguration from September 27 with Hatibagan Sarbojonin in North Kolkata, followed by a number of other inaugurations both in North and South Kolkata in the past few days.

It may be recalled that more than 3,000 community Puja committees had requested her to either inaugurate their Puja or write a few lines for them.