RAJSHAHI, Oct 14, 2021 (BSS) - People of the Hindu community here today

celebrated their Mohanobomi as part of the five-day Durga Puja, the largest
religious festival of the community, amid universal happy-harmony prayers
alongside great enthusiasm and festive mood.

   To mark the religious festival, puja mandaps and temples in the city have
turned into joyous places as thousands of devotees thronged there to
celebrate their biggest religious festival.

   The festival was marked by puja, arati, recitation from scriptures,
distribution of proshad, offering devotional songs and bhajans.

   The Durgotsob is being celebrated in 3,432 puja mandaps in all eight
districts under the Rajshahi division in addition to 93 in Rajshahi city with
special arrangements amid the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic
situation.

   Each of the puja mandaps was given five tonnes of rice on behalf of the
respective district administrations for smooth celebration of the puja in the
division this year.

   Rajshahi City Corporation donated Taka 10,000 to each of the city's 74
puja mandaps for the successful celebration of the festival.

   Shyamal Kumar Ghosh, Rajshahi city unit general secretary of Hindu
Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, told BSS that the Durga Puja is being
celebrated in a festive mood.

   Decorations of temples, lighting, and setting up of mandaps have already
turned the city into a festive look, he added.

   Rajshahi Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, Fazley Hossain Badsha, MP, and
Commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Abu Kalam Siddque and other
dignitaries visited some of the city's Puja Mandaps yesterday evening and
exchanged their pleasantries with the devotees.

   The celebration will end through the immersion of idols of goddess Durga
on Bijoya Dashami on Monday.

   Meanwhile, foolproof security measures were taken in the city and its
adjacent areas to avert any untoward incident during the biggest religious
festival of the Hindu community.

   "We have adopted tight security measures to make the Rajshahi city's Durga
puja celebration festive and successful," said Abu Kalam Siddique,
commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.

   Police administration of all the respective areas have chalked out
necessary security measures to make the celebration a success, he added.

   Officers-in-charge of the police stations were asked to keep close contact
with the puja committees round the clock.

   Abdul Baten, deputy inspector general of police, said three-tier security
measures have been adopted everywhere in the division.

   Members of law enforcement agencies have already been deployed at all the
important points of the city.

   He said the leaders of Puja Udjapan Parishad have been urged to set up
close circuit cameras in the major puja mandaps.