Mamata dispels Bakri Eid, Puja date clash fears

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday drew the roadmap for a safe immersion this year by clearing all doubts over a possible date clash between Durga idol immersion and Bakri Eid. She was speaking at Sharad Samman 2013, a programme where puja organizers were awarded for their participation in the city's biggest festival.

This year, Maha Nabami and Dashami will be on the same day ? October 3, which is a Friday. Since there is a tradition of immersing idols on week days, most organizers will plan their immersion on October 6, Monday, the Bakhri Eid day. The possibility kept the organizers, police and the administration worried.

However, the CM chose the Sharad Samman programme to dispel all fears for once and all. "On October 3, all household Durga idols will be immersed. The rest will be immersed on October 5, Sunday. The immersion will remain closed till 8pm on October 6, Monday," Mamata said.

On Thursday, the chief minister doled out cash rewards to different puja organizers. There were numerous categories and hardly any major puja organizer was left out of the list. There were categories like Safe Puja, Best Puja, Sera Salpo Budget Puja, Sera Sambhabana, Sera Paribesh, Sera Bishoy, Serar Sera, Sera Alo, Sera Shailpik Utkarsho etc. Each category had a cash award of Rs 50,000.

Then there were Mayor's choice in 30 odd categories again, each having a cash award of Rs 50,000. There were more categories like Biswa Bangla Sarad Samman and Biswa Bangla Bishesh Swikriti, each with cash awards of Rs 1 lakh. ?Sera' volunteers got Rs 2000 each.