Bengaluru civic body eases curbs on Durga Puja festival

The BBMP also added that a ward can have more than one idol for Durga Puja with the permission of the joint commissioner. “During the prayer rituals, musical instruments like drums use are allowed,” the BBMP said.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday relaxed restrictions on Durga Puja after outcry by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and other Hindu groups who raised objections over the guidelines.

The BBMP said that its chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta spoke to senior officials and Durga Puja associations and then revised the guidelines. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The BBMP said that its chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta spoke to senior officials and Durga Puja associations and then revised the guidelines.

“The restriction of installing Durga idols not more than 4 feet is removed. During the pushpanjali and sandhi puja, one has to follow all Covid-19 appropriate behaviour and allow only 50 people in batches. There is no restriction on the total number of batches,” the BBMP said in a statement on Thursday.

The BBMP also added that a ward can have more than one idol with the permission of the joint commissioner. “During the prayer rituals, musical instruments like drums use are allowed,” the BBMP said.

Tejasvi Surya, the BJP MP from Bengaluru south on Wednesday had said that there was tendency to put restrictions on Hindu festivals.

“There is a general tendency in sections of the bureaucracy to think that it’s OK to put any and every kind of restrictions on Hindu festivals. This is a colonial relic. Post 2014, the awakened Hindu resists such attempts. This colonialism must end too,” he said in a Twitter post on Wednesday.