Staff Reporter:
The five-day Durga Puja, the largest religious festival of the Hindu community formally begins today.
Apart from the police, RAB, BGB, Coast Guard and military personnel, around 2 lakh Ansar personnel and 80,000 volunteers from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs have been deployed across the country to ensure a security blanket over the country for safe and peaceful celebrations of the Puja.
The home adviser has said all possible measures have been taken for peaceful and festive celebrations of the upcoming Durga Puja.
This year, as many as 32,990 puja mandaps have been set up across the country to celebrate Durga Puja from September 28 to October 2, according to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
Allocations for the puja mandaps have been increased to TK 5 crore this year from TK 2 crore , which was the amount in the fallen fascist Awami League government. The interim government had allocated TK 4 crore last year for Durga Puja celebration.
Each puja mandaps will also get 500 kilogram of rice apart from the money for ensuring festive celebra-tions of the Durga Puja, the largest religious festival of the Hindus.
The government has also made a detailed security plan for peaceful celebrations of Puja after holding meetings with all the stakeholders including the leaders of the puja celebration committees.
Security in three phases — pre-puja, during puja, immersion of idols and post puja period will be in place around the Puja Mandaps across the country.
