Kolkata: With three months to go for Durga Puja, arrangements are afoot for the five-day festival, but organisers, much like last year, have decided to keep the celebrations low key in view of the COVID-19 situation.
The Forum for Durgotsab, a platform of 500 community Durga Pujas in the city, took to Facebook on Sunday to say that the countdown has begun, and a list of norms, to be adopted for this year's celebrations, would soon be prepared.
State minister and one of the spearheads of big-ticket Chetla Agrani Puja, Firhad Hakim, said: "This is not the time to organise a gala Durga Puja."
Echoing him, his Cabinet colleague Subrata Mukherjee, associated with Ekdalia Evergreen committee, maintained that the panel has decided not to invest in dazzling illumination, which is the hallmark of the popular south
Kolkata puja. "The idol will be housed in a smaller-sized pandal, unlike the giant ones that we have made before the pandemic struck," he explained.
TMC's Rashbehari MLA Debasish Kumar, who also happens to be an office-bearer of the popular Tridhara Sammilani puja, said, "All rituals will be observed for worshipping Maa Durga, but there won't be any celebration."