A Correspondent :
With the Sharadiya Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of Bangalee Hindus, knocking at the door, leaders of Puja Udjapan Parishad in Chittagong have taken several special measures to hold the five-day festival peacefully.
In the city, Puja will be held in 281 mandaps, said Ratnakar Das, a member of Mahanagar Puja Udjapan Parishad Executive Committee.
Expressing satisfaction over the security measures taken so far by the administration and police, he said they instructed not to organise any “theme-based programme” in the puja mandaps this year.
“In past years, we saw lights being turned off for 10 to 15 minutes for the theme-based programme to start.
Taking advantage of it, troublemakers may make any untoward incident happen during this time,” he said.
Ratnakar added, “We will increase vigilance and deploy adequate number of volunteers who will be working, along with law enforcers, in the mandaps,”
“Some areas of the city such as Bakalia, Bayezid Bostami and Karnaphuli are vulnerable and we urged the police to pay special attention to these areas,” he mentioned.
While describing their security plan, Devdas Bhattacharya, CMP additional commissioner (crime and operation), said that plain-clothes detectives apart, three policemen and eight Ansar members will be deployed in each mandap.
Mentionable, the Puja will be held in 1,617 mandaps in seven southern and seven northern upazilas of the district, according to the south and north units of Puja Udjapan Parishad.
