Mamata Banerjee announces a 10-day Durga Puja festival from 2017

From the stage on Red Road chief minister Mamata Banerjee has made a major announcement - from 2017, the Durga Puja festival in Bengal will be of 10-day duration. It will start from Mahalaya and conclude on Bijoya Dasami day.
She was the driving force behind the first edition of the Bishwa Bangla carnival that featured a total of 39 Durga Puja idols selected by her v government. Mamata Banerjee herself was on the dais as the procession filed past the huge dais set up on Red Road. She smiled and waved to the people accompanying the floats.
Along her on the dais were Sourav Ganguly, Trinamul MLA Vaishali Dalmiya and others.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 15 October 2016.

Encouraged by the response, Mamata Banerjee announced that (i) 10 is the number of days the Durga Puja revelry would stretch from next year (ii) 75 is the number of pujas that would join the pre-bhashan parade next year (this year it was just 39) (iii) 100,000+ would be the number of people who would witness the parade next year.
The chief minister’s call for a 10-day Puja celebration could create problems for schools because they usually remain open till Panchami and offices remain open till Sashthi. Obviously, school students and office-goers will have to bear the brunt of 10-day festivities and endure negotiating the traffic snarls that will be unleashed.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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