Cuttack: Nuabazar Puja Committee in the Silver City here has planned to put up three massive LED gates to celebrate this year’s Dussehra festival.
The committee will install the LED gates near Cuttack College, Utkal Flour Mill and the puja pandal, sources said.
This apart, the committee has decided to make special arrangement for women devotees who will throng its puja pandal during Dussehra.
According to sources, a few shopkeepers of Nuabazar area had worshipped clay idols of Hara-Parvati to celebrate Dussehra in 1957. Subsequently, the locals came forward to participate in the annual festival.
“Now, at least 500 shopkeepers and the residents of Nuabazar are organising the Dussehra festival. We have prepared a budget of Rs 6 lakh for this year’s festival,” said a source in the puja panel.
The puja committee has engaged artisan Dillip Behera of Sagadia Sahi to make the clay idol of Goddess Durga for the upcoming Dussehra celebration. Behera will start making the idol on the occasion of Vishwakarma Puja, sources said.
It is learnt that hundreds of devotees from different parts of the city gather at the Nuabazar puja pandal to participate in the Aparajita Puja during Dussehra. “It is believed that people who offer Aparajita Puja to Goddess Durga would not face defeat in life,” said a member of Nuabazar Puja Committee.
Office-bearers of the puja committee claim that they do not organise orchestra programmes and other cultural events near the pandal. “We always try to save some money to do charity work. We used to provide relief to the victims of natural calamities like cyclone and flood. Besides, we are providing financial help towards the education of poor and orphan children,” said an office-bearer of the puja panel.
Nuabazar Puja Committee president Manoj Kumar Subuddhi said all measures are in place for the smooth organisation of the Dussehra festival.
Puja panel secretary Umesh Chandra Sahu said they will not allow anyone to consume liquor or any other intoxicants during the immersion of idols.