CUTTACK: Commissionerate Police has directed puja committees in Cuttack city to avoid installing and worshipping caricaturish idols at pandals during Ganesh Chaturthi on September 19. Stringent action will be initiated against those violating the directive. “We have appealed both artisans and puja organisers to refrain from constructing and selling caricaturish idols and installing the same at puja pandals,” said police commissioner Saumyendra Kumar Priyadarsi after chairing a Ganesh Puja preparatory meeting here on Friday.
Both the idol makers and puja organisers have been asked to ensure the idols do not hurt the religious sentiments of people and create a law and order situation. Any deviation in the construction of idols and installation will invite legal action. Anything that tends to hurt religious sentiment will not be allowed, Priyadarsi added.
“We will keep a tab on the design of the idols installed at the puja pandals. Stringent action would be initiated against organisers found installing and worshipping caricaturish idols of Lord Ganesh,” said Priyadarsi. The Orissa High Court in 2015 had issued a direction that the immersion ceremony should be held on three successive Sundays after Ganesh Chaturthi. While Ganesh Puja is on September 19, the immersion ceremony will be held in three phases on September 24, October 1 and 8, he informed.
“We have also appealed to the puja committees to refrain from collecting donations forcefully,” said Priyadarshi adding police would adopt a zero-tolerance policy on it. Besides, the puja committees too have been asked to use maximum 65 decibel of sound during the immersion ceremony.
“A maximum of five to six trolleys will be allowed in the procession. There will be no use of firecrackers during the immersion ceremony. We have also restricted obscene dances during the ceremony,” said DCP Pinak Mishra. The puja organisers urged the administration to repair the roads in the city before the immersion ceremony.
General secretary, Cuttack Mahanagar Puja Committee Prabhat Tripathy, Cuttack Mahanagar Shanti Committee president Debendra Sahu and secretary Bhikari Das and CMC mayor Subhas Singh were present in the preparatory meeting.