TURA: Garo Hills is gearing up to celebrate Durga Puja, the largest festival of the Hindu community with the Central Puja Committee (CPC) making hectic preparations since the beginning of this month to ensure the successful and peaceful celebration of the festival.
Puja pandals have been erected at different locations all across Garo Hills and respective puja pandal committees are making all efforts to come up with the finest details so that their’s is the one that stands out from amongst the rest.
This year, a total of 115 Puja Pandals have been erected by different Puja committees all across Garo Hills. West Garo Hills has the highest number of Puja pandals with 75, while there are altogether 24 Puja pandals in Tura Town alone.
The special attraction for this year’s Durga Puja celebration will be the Silver Jubilee celebration of the Fancy Valley Puja Pandal and a variety of colorful cultural programmes have been chalk out to observe the occasion with great enthusiasm. Another interesting variation in this year’s celebration is the Mahendra Colony Durga Puja Committee, whose members are all women.
Setting the mood for a peaceful festival, the CPC will be distributing clothes to the poorest of the poor in Tura, irrespective of caste or community on October 17.
The Central Puja Committee (CPC) will be coordinating with all the Durga puja committees with support from DCs and Sps of all Garo Hills districts. The CPC has also requested all the puja committees to maintain cleanliness and communal harmony, which is the theme for this year’s celebration.
On Friday, the last day of the festival, the immersion procession will begin as usual from Dobasipara via Hawakhana to the Babupara Visharjan Ghat where the idols of different puja committees will be immersed at 1:30 pm.
Post Puja festivities, Dhak competition cum cultural programme will be held on October 21 at the Tura Police Parade Ground, where artists from popular TV show, ‘SAREGAMAPA’ from Kolkata will enthrall the audience with their renditions.
Meanwhile, the Central Puja Committee (CPC) has thanked the people of Garo Hills for their support and cooperation in ensuring a peaceful Durga Puja celebration every year.