Durga Puja preparations in full swing
Organisers and artisans are busy decorating mandaps and idols as Durga Puja is only a week away.
The main festivities of the Durga Puja -- the largest religious festival of the Hindus in Bangladesh as well as India’s West Bengal and several other eastern states of India -- will begin on October 3 and it will end with emersion of the idols on October 8.
There will be 1,187 puja mandaps (worship pavilion) in 12 upazilas of Tangail this year, said Prodip Kumar Goon Jhantu, general secretary of District Puja Udjapan Parishad.
The highest number of mandaps, total 236, will be set up in Mirzapur upazila, he added.
Preparations were going on in full swing at different mandaps when this correspondent recently visited Adalat Para, College Para, Paradise Para, Thana Para and Bajitpur areas in Tangail town.
Artisans have been busy painting the earthen idols at different mandaps since early morning till midnight, said Bibhas Chowdhury, publicity secretary of Adalat Para Puja Sangsad.
Other preparations of the mandaps, including setting up of decorative lighting and gates, were also being made during this phase, he added.
Artisan Dipak Paul of Taratia area said the idols were made over the last one month and now they were working on paintwork on the idols.
They are engaged with idol making jobs for one and a half months during this time of the year, but they do not have any job for almost the rest of the year, said Mohadeb Paul, another artisan the same area.
“The money we earn by making protima [idol] is not much, but we are still trying to hold on to our ancestral profession,” he also said.
Meanwhile, the district administration and police are taking special security measures in and around the mandaps to make the event a success.
Mohammad Ahaduzzaman Miah, additional superintendent of police (crime) in Tangail, said for better coordination of the measures, the police and officials of the district administration have already held meetings with leaders of the local Hindu community recently.
Volunteers from Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad will also assist law enforcers during the festivities, he said.
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