Like the previous five years the Bengal Government on Friday celebrated the Durga Carnival in style exhibiting the grand march-past of 74 idols from various clubs along with their respective themes at the historic Red Road.
Organised much along the line of the Independence Day parade in New Delhi tableaux taken out by each Puja club came out with a theme ranging from women’s empowerment to pollution to ‘safe drive’ a phrase coined by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to encourage sane driving.
Durga Puja Carnival a brainchild of the Chief Minister is primarily held to attract international tourist and showcase Durga Pujas as the biggest carnival on earth. “It is perhaps beiger than the one held in Rio,” Banerjee earlier said adding “no where on earth will you find the intermingling of mysticism with materialistic ideas with such finesse and nowhere on earth you will find crores of people roaming the streets 24x7 hopping Puja pandals ... this is why we call it the biggest carnival on earth.”
Hundreds of foreign dignitaries and foreign media men and more than a lakh people witnessed the Durga Carnival on Friday.