Whither guidelines for Durga Puja?

A news item published in the Saturday edition of this newspaper has said that the Kamrup (Metro) district administration has issued a set of guidelines for the Durga Puja committees of the district. This is a welcome step on the part of the district administration. Though a set of the guidelines is not immediately available (the district authorities should make them public by various means well ahead of commencement of the Puja festival), the news item quoting district administration officials has said that each Puja Committee will have to take prior permission from the police station concerned for organizing Durga Puja. While the criteria for obtaining or granting permission too have not been made public, a few things must be ascertained by the authorities concerned in order to ensure that the Puja festival passes off smoothly without disturbing the normal life of citizens. The first and foremost should be that no permission should be granted to any Puja committee to encroach upon public roads and pavements in the name of organizing Durga Puja. Likewise, there should be strict guidelines on the use of loudspeakers, while district administration should impose heavy penalty on those Puja Committees which fail to ensure the ban on single-use plastic/polythene. Action should also be taken against those Puja Committees which forcibly collect 'donations' from the people, including from traders, business houses and shopkeepers. It is also for the district administration to ensure that public transport – the city bus service – continues to remain in service during the Puja days too, so that it does not affect normal life of the citizens. In the recent years there has been a tendency among a section of corporate entities to organize competitions among the Puja Committees. Puja is not about competition of decoration and lighting. Instead, competition – if at all is held –should focus on promotion of message related to healthcare (especially in the backdrop of the Covid experience of the past couple of years), environment protection, increasing green cover, generation of awareness about issues like climate change, child rights, women rights, and so on.