Durga Puja: Cuttack gears up for grand festival, focus on fire safety norms at puja mandaps

The Millennium City of Cuttack is gearing up for a grand Durga Puja this year. There is a reason for the people in Cuttack to be happy as this time the number of Durga idols with silver tableaux will see addition of two more puja mandaps.

A senior official informed that Ramgarh and Tulasipur puja committees are the latest entrants in the elite silver tableaux club in Cuttack, taking the total number of puja committees to 34 from the existing 32.

Apart from silver, Cuttack is also having a lot of puja pandals where the goddess glitters in gold ornaments. Bhikari Das, a senior member said that a meeting was recently conducted and several measures have been taken for smooth conduct of the Durga puja which draws devotees from different parts of the state and outside.

This time, the district administration has decided to have focus on fire safety arrangements at the puja pandals.

Sanjeev Behera, Assistant Fire Officer, Cuttack informed that each puja committee has been asked to install two fire extinguishers apart from keeping sand buckets. Soon a training programme of all the members of the puja committees will be held to impart training on various fire safety norms and how to use fire extinguishers and handle emergency situations.

“There are already three permanent fire stations and six more temporary fire stations will be set up during the Durga puja,” Behera added.