Record Ganesh puja mandaps in Cuttack

A record number of 700 puja mandaps came up in Cuttack this year on Friday apart from pujas of the elephant-headed God held in all educational institutions. Different days have been allotted for puja mandaps to hold the immersion ceremonies next month.

Ganesh puja will usher in other pujas for the next three months. These include Biswakarma puja, Durga puja, Kali puja and Laxmi puja. The puja season will culminate in the Kartikeswar puja in November.

Like Durga puja, the Ganesh puja in Cuttack is catching up as more and more youth clubs are observing it with a lot of enthusiasm and fanfare.

“This is definitely going to create an adverse law and order situation, besides compounding the perennial traffic problem of the city,” says the Mahanagar Peace Committee general secretary Bhikari Das.

Mushrooming of clubs

Das said youth clubs are now mushrooming in every lane and by-lane of the city and after two to three years of their existence, they get into the culture of having pujas.

He, however, pointed out that all the Sahi Committees (Local committees) are thinking of having a single Ganesh Puja mandap in their area in a grand style.

Efforts in this regard have yielded better results in Chowdhury Bazar and Bidanasi area, Das informed, hoping that others would follow suit.