BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government is mulling to provide financial assistance to the oldest Durga Puja pandals in the state, to help them continue with their tradition of worshipping the ‘Mrunmayee Murti’ of Goddess Durga during Dussehra.
Although modalities of the financial support are yet to be worked out, the government plans to provide Rs 1 lakh to pandals that are a 100-year-old or more, Rs 75,000 to those that are 75-years-old and Rs 50,000 to pandals which have been organising the festival for five decades now. The move is on the lines of support extended to other festivals like Sahi Jata, Dhanu Yatra, Sital Sasthi and Daspalla Lanka Podi.
Among those that will receive the financial aid are puja pandals where the tradition of Durga Puja dates back to 50 years, 75 years and 100 years.
To move forward with this initiative, secretary of Odia Language, Literature, and Culture department, Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya has sought information from all the district collectors on the number of such puja pandals in their respective regions.
“It is Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s idea to support the oldest Durga Puja celebrations in the state. We have sought the information from collectors after receipt of which, their historical connection with the festival will be traced and a final list of such pandals drawn for approval of the chief minister,” informed a higher official of the Culture department.
The official added that the focus areas are Cuttack, Balasore, Bhadrak, Koraput and Khurda districts. If there are no pandals older than 50 years, the collectors have been asked to furnish information of two of the oldest puja pandals in their regions.
The department had conducted an exercise in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar recently and found out that it would require at least `3 crore for supporting the oldest puja pandals.
This year, the state government supported Sahi Jata festival in eight sahis of Puri by providing `16 lakh, of which it has directed the sahis to spend `8 lakh towards the costumes of the artistes.
Similarly, it had provided `10,000 honorarium for 170 main artistes of Dhanu Yatra in Bargarh.