Durga Puja carnival to be held on Oct 14

Siliguri: The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) and district administration have started preparations for Durga Puja. This year, the Durga Puja carnival in Siliguri will be held on October 14, a day ahead of the Puja carnival of Kolkata.

This decision was taken after a preparatory meeting on Durga Puja, which was held at Dinabandhu Manch on Tuesday night. Gautam Deb, Mayor of Siliguri, Deepak Sarkar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sub Divisional Officers of Siliguri and Jalpaiguri, other officials, members of different Puja committees were present at the meeting.

This year, the SMC will reward the Puja committees that will participate in the carnival. Apart from this, the Siliguri Police Commissionerate will introduce a single-window system for taking permissions to participate in the carnival. All the required permissions will be given from a single window, which will help the Puja committees and will save time.

“If any Puja committee faces any difficulty regarding carnival or Puja, they can directly contact the SMC office or can inform their queries at the ‘Talk to Mayor’ programme,” said Gautam Deb.

With the aim of ensuring the safety of people, this time, police officers will visit places where Puja committees will construct their Puja pandals with the committee members.

Every Puja committee was instructed to provide details about the height, weight of the pandal and idols and every detail about the Puja pandal and safety measures that will be taken by the Puja committees.

No Puja committee will be allowed to increase the height and weight of pandals or idols beyond the margins given by the government. Anti-eve teasing teams will be present at the Puja pandals. Every Puja committee will have to display awareness boards on dengue ban on use of plastic, thermocol.