The Ranchi district administration has decided to felicitate those puja committees/pandals, which follow the State Government puja guidelines to check the spread of coronavirus. Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Chhavi Ranjan made the announcement after visiting some of the puja pandals here on Thursday.
The district administration’s decision to felicitate puja pandals has come at the time when the government had given slews of relaxations in its earlier puja guidelines. Jharkhand Government has issued two amendments to its earlier Durga Puja guidelines, giving in to the demands for relaxations from several quarters.
Public address system has now been allowed at puja pandals between 7 am to 9 pm only for live chanting of mantras/paath/arti and restrictions of people inside the puja venues have been increased to 15. Earlier, the use of a public address system was banned and only seven people were allowed inside the puja pandals at any given point in time.
Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh on Wednesday evening issued the guidelines.
However, still there are many guidelines which the puja committees have to follow such as fixing the height of idols to four feet, banning theme based puja pandals. No fair/mela shall be organised and no food stalls shall be opened in and around the puja pandals as per guidelines.
There is a ban on musical or any other entertainment/cultural functions. No community feast/bhog or Prasad's or distribution function shall be organised.
No invitation shall be issued in any form by the organisers of puja committees.
Ranchi Durga Puja committee convener Munchin Rai said, "We welcome the government decision to give relaxations in puja guidelines. But, keeping the corona pandemic in mind, the government should give more relaxations."
Meanwhile, the Mahavir Mandal has urged the puja committees not to distribute masks and sanitizers near puja pandals as it will create overcrowding of people. The Mahavir Mandal has urged the puja committees to follow social distancing norms to check the spread of corona pandemic.
Meanwhile, the State Electricity Board has set up a control room for puja celebration. The control room will function round the clock. The control room will function in three shifts. The control room which started today will run till October 25. Also, the state electricity board ahead of puja celebration has changed seven transformers at different places such as at Bero, Ormanjhi, Ranchi and other areas so that uninterrupted power is supplied.