Agartala: Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) has rolled out specific guidelines for the Durga Puja festival in order to avert any kind of unpleasant event and address safety concerns during the festival days.
Durga Puja is the biggest festival in the state and thousands of community Puja organizers attract huge crowds of devotees during the four days of Puja.
The AMC has also put restrictions on setting up unauthorised stalls, and structures and instructed the Puja organizers to dismantle the pandal the day after the Vijaya Dashami.
The civic body has also directed the Puja organisers to ensure that their makeshift structure is approved by a qualified engineer.
Otherwise, the AMC might not give it clearance for construction of the pandal. The decisions were taken during the Mayor in Council meeting held at Agartala Municipal Corporation on Wednesday.
Speaking to the media persons on Thursday, Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation Dipak Majumder said, “Last year, as many as 370 community Puja organisers were granted permission for Puja within the jurisdiction of Agartala Municipal Corporation. This year also we have plans to grant such permissions but considering the safety and security of the devotees who venture out of their homes in large numbers of pandal hopping, we have put forth a slew of guidelines. All the community Puja organisers have to adhere to the guidelines to get clearance from the AMC.”
“From this year no overhead gate could be constructed on main roads so that traffic snarls could be eased. The Puja organisers have to take necessary approval from fire, power, PWD, and traffic departments before construction of the pandal. If the height of the pandal is above 20 feet, approval is required from the civil engineering division of the AMC. The pandal has to be eight feet away from the live electric wires for public safety,” Majumder added.
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Stating that all these decisions have been taken to ensure public safety, Majumder said, “Whether the pandal is constructed keeping all the safety measures in mind needs to be approved by a qualified engineer. The approval letter of the engineer needs to be submitted with the letter seeking AMC permission. Apart from that, panthe dal has to be dismantled a day after Vijaya Dashami. Otherwise, the AMC authorities reserve the right to dismantle the pandal.”
Apart from that several restrictions had been imposed such as flood lights could not be installed in places that could hamper the traffic services, unauthorised vendors couldn’t be allowed to set up stalls, and all pandals must have enough arrangements for disaster management.
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