Ghaziabad bids adieu to Goddess Durga with clean immersions

Hundreds of idols were immersed in special ponds dug up by the district administration

Devotees across Ghaziabad bid adieu to Goddess Durga on Tuesday as hundreds of idols were immersed in special ponds dug up by the district administration to mark the end of Durga Puja celebrations on Vijay Dashmi.

Ghaziabad district officials had got ponds dug up near river Hindon and at Upper Ganga Canal for idol immersion. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

A number of Durga Puja pandals had come up in the city in the last 10 days where prayers were offered by the residents in worship of the goddess.

On Tuesday, women, dressed in white sarees with red coloured borders, offered prayers to Durga idols and performed a series of rituals like ‘boron’ before the immersion processions started.

“We offered sweets, water, sindoor and performed aarti before the Durga idols before the immersion ritual. For the last day of the Durga puja celebrations, women had bought new sarees and arrived at pandals along with family to offer prayers,” said Shyamal Kumar Das, the president of Kalibari Samiti at Sanja Nagar.

“A series of dance performances were also held on Tuesday with women smearing sindoor on the forehead of other women and wishing each other. Only married women take part in the ritual of ‘sindoor khela.’ Special sindoor is procured from Bengal for the purpose,” said Rupa Roy, a devotee.

Officials said, after the final day of puja and celebrations, the idols were taken to different locations for immersion.

The district administration had made elaborate arrangements for idol immersion near Indira Priyadarshini Park adjacent to River Hindon and also at Murad Nagar.

The administration had dug up ponds where idols were immersed keeping in view a number of court orders that prohibited immersion in the main stream of a river to curb pollution.