Bhubaneswar Sep 12 :With the State government ruling out any change in the four-feet cap on idol height, the Cuttack Mahanagar Shanti Committee and Durga Puja committees on Saturday decided to meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the issue.
At a meeting, they urged the government to reconsider their demands for relaxation of restriction on height of idols of Goddess Durga and conduct of rituals behind the curtain.
While the height of the idol will no way contribute to the rise in Covid cases, the ornaments prepared for the Goddess would not fit to the 4-ft idols. Besides, the strict restrictions on conduct of the rituals have deeply hurt the people’s religious sentiments, said Mahanagar Shanti Committee president Debendra Sahu.
As per the decision, a delegation led by Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab will meet the Chief Minister and apprise him to reconsider their demands by September 16. On Wednesday, a delegation of puja committees had met Chief Secretary SC Mahapatra and Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradeep Jena at Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar over the demands.
“We had expected a positive outcome from the meeting. We fail to understand the reason for capping the height of the idol at four feet,” he said. Mahtab and former BJD legislator and secretary of Cuttack Mahanagar Puja Committee Pravat Tripathy were also present.