East Singhbhum Durga Puja guidelines, SoPs leave committees unhappy

JAMSHEDPUR: The district authorities here notified guidelines for the upcoming Durga Puja festival on Monday night. Like the notification released by the state government a few days earlier, the 22-point guideline of the East Singhbhum administration emphasises on strict adherence to Covid protocols while observing Puja rituals. The administration also warned Puja committees of legal action in case of any violation at the Puja venues.
Puja committees have been asked to ensure thermal screening of visitors and implement social distancing at the pandals, among others.Not more than seven people, including the priest and committee volunteers, are allowed at the pandal at any given point of time. Putting up welcome gates, distribution of bhog, decorative lighting and so on have been banned while the height of the idol has been fixed at four feet. Children, senior citizens and ailing persons are prohibited from venturing out. “Keeping the difficult times in mind, people should avoid going to the pandals and instead celebrate the festival at home with their family this year,” DC Suraj Kumar said.
SSP M Tamil Vanan said, “Circles will be drawn at the pandals to maintain social distancing and Puja committees will have to install CCTVs to record the movement of people and activities at the pandals.” He added, “The officer in-charge of the respective police stations will carry out random inspection of the pandals twice a day.”
The Jamshedpur Kendriya Durga Puja Samiti (JKDPS) said Puja committees will comply with the guidelines but at the same time the organisation expressed dissatisfaction with some of the points. “To perform any ritual, we require at least 10 people including the dhaki, priest and the volunteers. Hence the seven-person ceiling is not logical,” said JKDPS secretary Arun Singh.
Notably, till Tuesday afternoon the district has reported 15,387 Covid cases, of which 1,553 are active. Also, East Singhbhum has the highest number of Covid cases in the state after Ranchi.