After a two-year gap due to Covid restrictions, the prominent Durga Puja committees in Ranchi are back to organize the festival in a grand way. From heritage to important monuments, puja committees in the Capital city are coming up with innovative and interesting themes for Durga puja — the biggest festival of the year.
The Bakri Bazar Puja Committee in Upper Bazar, which is looked upon as one of Ranchi’s biggest pujas in terms of grandeur, budget and footfall this year is constructing the famous Iskcontemple of West Bengal. The puja pandal is more than 70 feet high and it is coming up at a budget of Rs 40 lakh. Also,a 19-ft-high idol of Durga is coming up with the frame, which will also have the idols of Ganesh, Laxmi, Kartikeya and Saraswati, and will span 35ft.
“Due to the restrictions imposed by the state government during Covid-19, the celebrations were low-key. This year, we are all set for a grand puja. The stage is going to be 40ft, so the idols are also big,” Ashok Choudhary, president of the committee, said.
The office-bearers of Satya Amar Lok puja committee on Harmu Road will also have an 18-ft-high idol this year. “We had to limit our idols to 5ft in the last couple of years due to restrictions. But there are no such curbs this year,” said a member of the committee.
The famous Puja committee at Station Road is constructing a pandal with mushrooms depicting nature.
Meanwhile, as the grand Durga Puja celebration is coming after a two-year gap, the district administration has made elaborate arrangements. Ranchi police will focus on ensuring social harmony and law and order in Ranchi city during Durga Puja as it is organized on a big scale after two years.
Instructions have been issued to different puja committees by district administration to organise the peace committee meetings by September 20. At peace committee meetings discussions related to pandals, idol immersion processions and sensitive places would be held. The police stations have been instructed to resolve all pending disputes between different communities under their jurisdiction.
Ranchi senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kishore Kaushal said, "Ensuring social harmony has become important in view of certain developments in the state capital in the recent past. Additional forces have been sought from the state headquarters for deployment at the pandals and other sensitive places of the city." Besides, police would also make preventive detention under Section 107 of the CrPC.
The police preparations are being made in the backdrop of June 10 clash between the police and mob in Ranchi city over former BJP leader Nupur Sharma's comment on Prophet Muhammad, peaceful but tense atmosphere prevailing in the subsequent festivals.
