DURGA PUJA CELEBRATION 2020 at Bangaluru
Bangaluru,1st October 2020
Durga Puja is one of the biggest festivals of Bengalees and celebrated grandly across the globe. Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India is now a home for more than 13,00,000 Bengalees and Durga Puja is celebrated in more than 135 places across Bangalore. Bengalee community is celebrating Durga Puja for more than 70 years in Bangalore.
This year as the entire world is suffering from the deadly Coronavirus and during this pandemic situation, the government has imposed a lot of restrictions on a public gathering to control the spread of the virus. In this situation, it’s uncertain whether Durga Puja can be celebrated every year.
Bongio Samaj Bengaluru, the largest Bengali Organization of South India called for a virtual meeting “All Association Meeting” on 21st August 2020 where more than 55 Associations across Bangalore joined. It was decided during the meeting that this time if the Government permits then Associations will scale down the celebration and will ensure all norms/guidance provided by the Government of Karnataka are followed.
Shri Sourav Mukherjee, National President, and Shri Sandeep Shome, National General Secretary of Bongio Samaj Bengaluru also met Shri TM Vijay Bhaskar, Chief Secretary of Karnataka on 28th September 2020 and submitted an appeal letter to allow Durga Puja and also proposed a few guidelines to consider which was prepared to keep in mind the safety of the people.
During the closed-door discussion, Chief Secretary assured Bongio Samaj Officials that they will definitely look into it and will advice appropriate government authority to cooperate on this.
We are hopeful that the Government of Karnataka will publish SOP related to Durga Puja soon and we will ensure it is implemented appropriately. Our volunteers are ready to support government authorities in all ways to make sure we have safe Durga Puja, says Sandeep Shome, National General Secretary of Bongio Samaj.