No ground rent from puja pandals this festival season in Odisha, announces CM Mohan Majhi

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi on Friday announced that no ground rent will be collected from the puja committees holding community puja on government land during this year’s festive season. The Chief Minister also extended wishes to the people of the State on the occasion of Maha Asthami.

In response, several puja committees across the State have expressed their gratitude to the Chief Minister.

“Earlier we had requested Cuttack Municipal Corporation to make the Durga Puja mandaps tax-free. However, our request was not accepted and we had to pay around Rs 24,000 as ground rent for setting up decorative gates and organising programmes. However, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi has now announced that all the puja mandaps across the State will be rent-free,” said Chhatra Bazaar puja committee president Debendra Sahu.

“We express our gratitude to the Chief Minister for the announcement. Several other committees have also paid rent like us. We request the administration to make necessary arrangements for the refund of the amount. It will be a big boost for the puja committees,” he added.