Lakhs of Puja revellers throng Puja pandals across city on ‘Sasthi’
Kolkata: The city on Wednesday witnessed an electrifying atmosphere with thousands of people hitting the streets clad in new dresses, plunging into merriment on “Sasthi”.
Despite the ongoing junior doctors agitation, the crowds outside towering pandals were found swelling on Wednesday evening. For the city’s retail sector, the Durga Puja season is finally looking up after several lacklustre weeks.
Sasthi signalled the start of the Durga Puja this year with “Bodhon” being performed on Goddess’ Durga’s idol. The entire state welcomes Goddess Durga with the beats of dhaak (drums), aroma of incense and fragrance of shiuli flowers.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee while inaugurating the Tala Prottoy Puja recently said: “What Bengal can do, the rest of the world cannot. Crores and crores of people join this (Durga Puja). Thus, I keep saying that the word ‘Utsab’ (festival) is based on ‘Utsarito’ (sourced) from the people.”
People had already started thronging Durga Puja pandals from Mahalaya this year. It happened as UNESCO had declared Durga Puja an intangible cultural heritage of humanity because of the huge participation of its people — numbering in crores. Banerjee during the inauguration of the 41 Pally Durga Puja at Haridevpur had said there were reports that people have already begun celebrating the Puja. “I have reports that people have already started visiting pandals….. Some people were saying that Ashtami and Nabami are on the same day while others are saying they are on separate days. But if you ask me, I will say join the celebrations on all four days. The carnival is on the 15th. Over 100 idols will remain for that day,” the CM said.
Revellers were more interested in visiting Sreebhumi, Simla Byayam Samity, Kumartuli-Ahiritola, Bagbazar Sarbojanin. The Ekdalia Evergreen, Jodhpur Park-Selimpur-Babubagan area witnessed a massive rise in footfall. Traffic movement was slow in several stretches. According to police, till 7 pm on Wednesday, several Puja pandals, including Tala Prottoy, Suruchi Sangha, Santosh Mitra Square registered a crowd of around 5,000-6,000. As the trends say the number would go up as the time will pass, police sources said. Meanwhile, the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) has provided 50,550 temporary connections to Puja committees throughout Bengal till Sasthi morning. For temporary connections, around 337.15 MVA extra load demand was met. WBSEDCL received Rs 8.08 crore against these connections as security deposits. On the evening of Panchami, the demand in the WBSEDCL area was 7,670 MW, including the additional Puja loads, said a press statement issued by the WBSEDCL.
“To ensure better customer service, 1883 LT Mobile Vans have been deployed round-the-clock to counter any power disruption/fault across all the districts. Similarly, for HT maintenance, 1501 Mobile Vans have been deployed for any emergency,” reads the press statement. The WBSEDCL has given more temporary puja connections till Wednesday morning as during the last year around 47,275 temporary connections were given till Sasthi morning last year.
