For close to three weeks now, the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Twin City police commissionerate in Odisha has been locked in a battle with the puja committees of Cuttack city. The issue of contention: the height of the Durga idol in the upcoming Puja. Durga Puja is celebrated with pomp and ceremony every year. But this year, the commissionerate chose to put in place strict guidelines for the observance of the festival in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to one guideline, the idol cannot be taller than four feet.
A Four-Foot Conundrum!
Can the height of the idol control the spread of coronavirus during Durga puja? Cuttack is roiled by a court battle between a top police diktat and angry puja committees.
Several puja committees of the city challenged the order in the high court on the ground that work on the idols was already underway when the guidelines were issued (on September 10), and that it was too late to make alterations. The high court threw the ball back to the police commissionerate’s court and asked it to take a call on the matter. After an inspection of the idol-making in progress, police commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi reiterated that the four-foot height restriction has to be observed by all puja committees.
Spiky Covid is inescapable from the idol being made at Lalbaug in Mumbai.
Riled by the commissioner’s diktat, about 25 puja committees of Cuttack knocked on the doors of the high court again. The court scheduled a hearing on the matter on September 30 and asked the police commissionerate to file an affidavit on the issue before that.
In Cuttack, Durga Puja is a big affair, much like Calcutta, with over 100 puja committees competing in a show of one-upmanship every year. Lakhs of rupees are collected and spent on large, colourful idols and glitzy decoration designed to grab eyeballs. For over a week, the city goes into a festive mood with the citizenry busy pandal-hopping through the day and night—mostly on foot because the roads are chock-a-block with people, making vehicular movement almost impossible. Hence, the disquiet among the puja committees is understandable.
“Frankly, I don’t quite understand how limiting the height of the Durga idol to four feet would help arrest the spread of the coronavirus. It defies logic,” rues the head of a puja committee.
By Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar
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