With immersion of major community Durga Puja idols starting today, security to be tightened at ghats

Kolkata, Oct 3 (IANS) With the immersion of major community Durga Puja idols starting from Friday evening after rain largely disrupted the ritual on Thursday, security arrangements have been tightened at all ghats in and around Kolkata.

Although immersion started from Thursday on the occasion of Dussehra, the rush for immersion was much less yesterday, with only puja organisers from housing complexes, individual residences, and extremely conservative community Puja organisers going for the ritual on Thursday.

However, said an officer of the city police, from Friday, the major community Pujas in the city will start immersing their idols, and hence the gathering at the banks would be much more than what it was on Thursday.

“Hence, the security arrangements, which were already fool proof since Thursday, will be tightened further for the next two days,” a city police official said.

About 3,500 pujas are held in Kolkata, the majority being community pujas.

As per the calculations of the Kolkata Police, the majority of the community puja organisers will have to complete their immersion process on Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday, there will be a grand carnival at Red Road in Central Kolkata organised by the state government, which will be participated in by only 113 award winning community Durga Puja committees, and these committees will only be permitted to perform the immersion at the end of the carnival.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be present at the carnival.

Hence, the city police is of the opinion that the massive rush for the majority of the community Durga Pujas in Kolkata for immersion will be on Friday and Saturday.

Additional cops will be deployed at the 28 immersion ghats, as well as the 200 points from where the immersion processions will pass through. In addition to that, there will be 28 disaster management teams, with one team allotted for each immersion ghat. The River Traffic Police will also man the ghats.

The city police, like Thursday, will use drones for the purpose of aerial surveillance and have already installed additional CCTV cameras at the ghats. The city police have also barred the use of DJs at the immersion processions.

--IANS

src/rad