The Tripura government revised the guidelines for the Durga Puja celebration on Sunday to include mandatory Covid-19 testing of the puja organizers, priests and volunteers in order to contain the spread of the pandemic.
More than a month ago, on September 4, the state government issued the first Durga puja guidelines instructing the organizers of the puja to collect online subscriptions, reducing the number of puja pandals through mutual consultation, avoiding narrow entry systems and departure at the pandals, allowing 5-10 people to visit idols at the same time and others.
According to the revised guidelines, all priests along with the organizers and volunteers of the puja will be required to undergo Covid-19 testing before Panchami, which falls on October 21. Additionally, there could be Covid-19 testing teams in the vicinity of some puja pandals to run random tests on devotees visiting the pandals during puja.
To avoid crowds at the pandals, the government ordered the pandals to be kept open everywhere. If sealing the roof of the pandal is required, then all other sides of the pandal must be kept open and vice versa. The government prohibited any type of fair in front of the puja pandal, unless some stalls could be set up some distance from the puja pandal to avoid crowds.
Priests have been asked to conduct pushpanjali ritual during puja through microphones and devotees need to bring flowers from their homes and 10 to 15 devotees can participate in pushpanjali at a time.
In Dussehra, puja clubs would organize ‘sindoor khela’, where 10-15 women could participate at a time at different intervals.
Sindoor Khela is a traditional ritual in which married women bid farewell to Goddess Durga by applying vermilion to their faces.
The organizers of the puja were also asked to bring idols to the pandals without any processions.
Bid organizers must identify a location, nearly two meters away from the pandal entry point for visitors, and must engage volunteers to see that people visiting the pandals are upholding Covid-19 standards, including social distancing, the use of masks, etc.
The revised guidelines also forced the bidding organizers to install CCTV on their pandals to monitor crowds and then turned over these images to the police.
Pregnant women, the elderly, and children under the age of 10 have been advised to stay home during puja. Although there will be no public celebration of Durga puja in the containment zones, people residing within the zones can celebrate in their respective homes.
Tripura has so far registered a total of 28,352 Covid-19 cases of which 313 have died. Two others died by suicide.
Dipak Majumder, secretary of the Sanghati Club said: “We will organize the bid according to the guidelines of the state government. We have decided to cut our budget by almost 50% compared to last year. In addition to organizing puja, our main goal is to avoid crowds to contain the spread of the disease. We call on devotees to follow similar guidelines. “
Sarmistha Das, a housewife, said: “It seems that this year there will be fewer people for Pushpanjali, as many mothers cannot participate in the ritual by leaving their children alone at home. And also, safety is more important than visiting puja pandals this year. “
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