Amidst the ongoing political unrest in Nepal, Durga Puja celebrations in Darjeeling this year are feared to be financially affected, on Saturday, Durga Puja Committee officials accepted this. Talking to ANI, officials of Durga Puja committees admitted that the budget of the pandal was sure to decrease this year as there is no sale on festivals this year. Deepak Chakraborty, Secretary, Durga Puja Committee, said that no pandal will be installed and worship will be done in the temple this year. He further admitted that only 10 percent of the shops were opened in this festive season.
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Chakraborty told ANI that this puja is organized by our committee. The budget of this puja is 95 percent collected from the shops. Shopkeepers worship this. However, in the current situation, 10 percent of the shops are not open. There are a total of 948 shops, of which 900 are closed; Only a few are open, but there is no customer. Chakraborty said that the budget has been reduced due to the sale of shops and reduction in donation. This year’s budget was initially big as the committee was preparing for the 50th puja and a large number of tourists from Nepal come from Nepal. However, due to the current situation in the neighboring country, this year’s worship was canceled 3-4 days ago.
Chakraborty further said that most tourists come from Nepal. If they do not come now, it will be very bad. Due to Kovid, we had reduced the number of worship twice. This time Pooja was for 50 years and our budget was very big. But this puja was canceled 3-4 days ago, we are very sad. According to Chakraborty, there will be a meeting to fix the budget and he stressed that although the government is giving 1 lakh 10 thousand rupees for the festival, a huge amount is required for organizing a puja; Therefore, a decision will be taken on the budget at 3 pm.
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Chakraborty further said that all shops are closed. We are getting Rs 1,10,000 from the government. But we are spending a lot of money on a puja. Therefore, we will take a decision at 3 pm. I don’t think there will be any great worship this time. Vidyut Das, chairman of the Sajaji Sangh Durga Puja Committee, also expressed a similar opinion and said that this year is challenging because they are not getting donations. Das further says that the budget of the pandals has been cut by 20%.