Durga Puja
Amit Shah to unveil Ram Mandir-themed Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata today
Kolkata/UNI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to unveil a Ram Mandir-themed community Puja Pandal in the city on late Monday, BJP sources said.
Shah is scheduled to land at the City's Dum Dum airport around 2 PM and unveil the Goddess Durga pandal at Santosh Mitra Square, Sealdah, in the central part of the city around 4 pm.
The community puja of the Santosh Mitra Square Puja Committee is one of the most attractive venues in this metropolis for the festival revellers for many decades for its unique theme, one of the organisers said on Monday.
This time the pandal is modelled after the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
BJP leader and local MLA Sajal Ghosh told reporters that the unveiling of the Durga idol, including her family members of Lord Ganesha, Lord Kartick, Goddess Laxmi and Goddess Saraswati would be unveiled simultaneously by the Union Minister this afternoon.
Ghosh is one of the chief patrons of the Santosh Mitra Community Puja.
The theme for this year's celebration is the Ram Temple, inspired by the ongoing construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Shah in 2021 had unveiled Durga Puja pandals at Salt Lake.
In Bengal the four-day Durga Puja is the biggest carnival in which crores of rupees are spent for Durga images, decoration of pandals and illumination.
Barring the traditional pujas being organised in the households, especially in the well-off families and erstwhile zamindars for centuries, the community pujas are now being organised by the politicians in their localities.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on August 22 last announced that her government would extend a grant of Rs.60,000 (Rs.10,000 more than last year) to each of the 43,000 clubs across the state to organise Durga Puja.
She also increased the rebate for electricity tariff in the Durga Puja pandals to 60 per cent (from 50 per cent last year).
The announcement and the disbursement of funds to the clubs would cost the state exchequer around Rs 258 crore.
For the past four years, the Mamata Banerjee government has been donating funds to the clubs across Bengal for organising the Durga Puja.
The four-day festival is literally extended for over weeks as the unveiling of idols has started from last weekend.
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