Celebration of Durga Puja ends

Bagerhat Correspondent :
The 5-day long celebration of ‘Durga Puja’, the biggest religious festival of Bengali Hindu community that started on Saturday was ended on Wednesday through the emersion of the images of Goddess Durga in Bagerhat district town and it’s all the nine Upazilas with religious fervour, gaiety, solemnity, peaceful and happy atmosphere. According to the belief of the Hindu community, this year Goddess Durga appeared on the earth by ephant and left by boat. So, the people of the country will be happy and prosperous.
 According to Abanish Chakrabarty (Sona), General Secretary of Bagerhat district unit of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad (BPUP), as many as 624 Puja Mandaps (pandels) were erected in Bagerhat district town and it’s all the nine Upazilas. The number of Puja Mandaps in the district town was 13 while the highest number of Puja Madaps was erected in Chitalmari Upazila. The number of Upazila wise Puja Madnaps was 116 in Bagerhat Sadar Upazila, 154 in Chitalmari, 75 in Morrelganj, 84 in Mollahat, 67 in Fakirhat, 43 in Kachua, 47 in Rampal, 38 in Mongla and 43 in Sharankhola. All the Puja Mandaps were highly decorated.
No untoward incident took place any where in the district on the occasion of the Durga Puja celebration.
Kapasia (Gazipur) Correspondent reports: The Vijaya Dashami was celebrated with great fanfare at the traditional Balda Bazar Ghat after Sri Sri Sharadiya Durgotsavam at Kapasia Upazila.
In the presence of thousands of Sanatan religious devotees and visitors from different areas, Bangtaj’s daughter Simin Hossain Rimi MP, president of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Culture, officially distributed the prizes among the winners of the idol competition as the Chief Guest on Thursday.
Adve Shekhar Chandra Saha presided over the Vijaya Dashami ceremony organized by the Upazila Puja Celebration Council. Under the direction of General Secretary Rajeev Ghosh, Upazila Executive Officer AKM Golam Morshed Khan, Upazila Parishad Vice Chairman Roshan Ara Sarkar, Police Station Officer-in-Charge AFM Nasim, Upazila Awami League General Secretary Mizanur Rahman Pradhan, Sadar UP Chairman and Upazila Jubo League President Sakhawat Hossain Pradhan among others spoke.
BSS from Gaibandha adds: A 5-day long Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu Community, ended in the district on Wednesday peacefully through the immersion of idols of deities at different water bodies. According to Hindu belief, this year Goddess Durga along with her children made her return journey for Kailash, her husband’s abode, on Dashami, the last day of the Durga Puja festival. On the Dashami day, members of Hindu Community exchanged greetings with each other saying ‘Shuvo Bijoya. Later, hundreds of Hindu devotees bid a tearful farewell to the deities, which is called ‘Visarjan’.
Before removing the idols of Durga and others gods and goddess from the altars for immersion the Hindu devotees irrespective of ages danced and sang kirton expressing their deep emotional pathos.
They offered arati to the Durga with billowing smokes from the Dhup pots seeking her divine blessing for them. Then, the idols of Goddess Durga were brought out from all the puja mandaps of the district at evening.
Thousands of devotees joined the colorful marches with music and dance as the idols were being carried on the trucks or shoulders to the nearby rivers, ponds, canals, and other water bodies for immersion.
Foolproof security measures had been taken by the law enforcing agencies including ansar, police, and Rab to avert any unpleasant incident during the immersion, said superintendent of police (SP) Muhammad Towhidul Islam.
A total of 608 puja mandaps were set up in all the seven upazilas of the district this year and a large number of law enforcers were deployed in and around the puja mandaps to maintain the law and order situation, said deputy commissioner Oliur Rahman.
The government also distributed a total of 304 tonnes of rice to the puja mandaps of the district to help the Hindu community celebrate the festival properly, the DC also said.
Initiatives were also taken to provide uninterrupted power supply to the puja mandaps at nights to enable the Hindu devotees in offering their prayers, puja, archana, kirtons, arati and other religious rituals, the DC added.
Engineer Monowar Hossain Chowdhury, MP, Umme Kuksum Smrity, MP and Barrister Shamim Haider Patwary, MP, visited the puja mandaps here separately during the puja festival period and exchanged their greetings with the devotees and the committee of the puja mandaps.
Retired principal Paresh Chandra Sarker, president of Bangladesh Puja Celebration Parishad, district unit, and its general secretary Dipok Kumar Pal thanked the government for taking the necessary measures for holding the Durga Puja in a peaceful way.