Like last year, the Balubazar Puja Committee this year too has approached the Orissa High Court challenging the State Government’s restriction on the height of Goddess Durga’s idols for the ensuing Dusshera festival next month.
Terming the Government’s restriction on the idol size as “arbitrary”, the committee through its president Suryakant Sangneria has appealed to the High Court to direct the Government to withdraw the controversial norm.
Notably, the Government on August 9 announced the restrictions, among others, limiting the height of all idols at the puja pandals across the State to four feet or less in view of the prevailing pandemic.
The Government again this month also refused to relax the restrictions for the puja when a delegation of puja committees of Cuttack city met the Chief Secretary and the Special Relief Commissioner at Bhubaneswar.
Several puja committees supported the BJP-called Cuttack Bandh on Monday and once again appealed to the Government to lift the restriction on idol size.
While the Mahanagar Puja Committee and the City Peace Committee have decided to appeal to the Chief Minister once again on September 16, the Balubazar Puja
Committee, which had been sporting Durga idol of eight feet for over 500 years, has approached the High Court to allow it maintain its age-old tradition.
