Durga Puja in Tripura: Pandal hopping starts in a big way
Finally, it is time to celebrate the biggest festival of the year – Durga Puja. It was Sasthi tithi on Monday and accordingly. the sasthi puja of the goddess Durga was held today morning in several Puja Pandals. People of Tripura, like other parts of the country are dressing up with devotion and enthusiasm to celebrate Durga Puja. Pandal hopping revellers have hit the street in a big way.
On the very first day of the Durga Puja in Tripura, Agartala witnessed massive crowd, almost throughout the day. While a section of people was busy in completing their last minute shopping, some others were seen visiting temples on the auspicious sasthi tithi.
Like previous years thousands of people in Tripura, especially in Agartala came out on Sasthi Puja night for Durga Puja pandal hopping, although many of the puja organizers were found to be still busy in giving the last touch to their puja pandals. The city roads remained crowded since the evening and puja revellers were seen making rounds at the puja sites in groups. Families with their children were also crowding the hotels and restaurants even as traffic snarls clogged some busy roads – though it was not so serious at Sasthi night. Markets and shopping malls were also seen doing brisk business.
There are total 554 Puja pandals in the capital city of varied size and budgets. While there are some traditional huge budget pujas, there are some pujas where the organizers did cut down their expenditure this time due to Covid induced economic affects.
While police and administration took adequate measures for security during the Durga Puja, there were visible neglect among the people of the Covid restrictions. People were seen largely neither wearing mask nor maintaining required physical distance.
A doctor on condition of anonymity cautioned that there could be surge of Covid infection in the state soon after the Puja celebrations.
“Government authorities must ensure strict adherence to Covid norms with Puja revellers otherwise we shall face serious Covid rise in near future. Most of the people are not even using face masks”, he said.