SHILLONG: Durga Puja, an important festival of Hindus is set to begin on September 26 this year. The Central Puja Committee, the coordinating body of all the puja committees in the state has planned a host of programmes to celebrate the festival in a befitting manner.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, President of the Central Puja Committee (CPC) , Naba Bhattacharjee said that there will be a total of 231 community Durga Puja pandals in the state including 64 in Greater Shillong area.
Garo Hills region will have 107 pandals including 24 in Tura and Jaintia Hills will have 11 community pandals
The celebration will begin with the Get Together of Harmony on September 23. This year marks the Silver Jubilee of the Get Together of Harmony. The celebration includes the all faith prayer where Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma will be the chief guest and religious leaders from different faiths will also attend the programme.
In addition, the Prasad Gupta Memorial Drum Beat Competition (Indigenous) and SK Das Memorial Drum Beat competition (traditional) will also be held on September 28 and 29 respectively at the Puja pandal of the Accounts and Audit Estate Durga Puja committee in Motinagar and Rilbong Durga puja pandal.
As far as security is concerned, there will be round the clock security in all the puja pandals and security personnel will also be deployed in all the vulnerable areas of the town. The puja pandals will have CCTV cameras, first aid box and fire extinguishers.
CPC general secretary, JL Das informed that the District Administration has asked PWD to repair all the damaged roads in the city and instructed MeECL and Shillong Municipal Board to ensure that all the street lights are functional. He said requests have also been made to Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to keep all parking lots open till midnight during the celebrations.
The SPTS buses have also been asked to ply till 11 pm on the three main days of the puja celebrations.
Under the CPC, Swachh Abhiyan, cleaning drives will be organised at the Immersion ghat on September 24 and again on October 1 and 2. Similar cleaning drives would be undertaken by all the puja pandals in Shillong on September 24.
Meanwhile, the CPC has also lined up several programme to celebrate its Silver Jubilee. The CPC earlier this year organised a maha vishwa shanti yagya for world peace and harmony.
In October, the CPC will also organise a silver jubilee harmony run and talks are on with famous cricketer Sourav Ganguly to flag off the run.
Apart from the valedictory function of Durga Puja, the CPC in December would also organize Christmas Carol programmes for economically weaker sections of society.
In February next year, a food festival and CPC photo exhibition is also set to be organised. This will be followed by a debate and quiz competition in March 2017 on traditions of religious harmony in India.
In April a traditional folk dance and songs festival of South East Asia, East and North East India would also be organised followed by an international conference on religion, compassion and humanity in June.
Spiritual leaders like the Dalai Lama besides other prominent intellectuals are likely to attend the programme.
