Madhyasahar Puja committee's road and traffic awareness initiative is one of the best innovation this Durga Puja

By barakbulletin On October 16, 2018 - 2:43 pm

Madhyasahar Sanskritik Samiti, which celebrates Durga Puja in Narshigtola is renowned for its cultural richness. Alongside with the pandal and goddesses’ idols, there is a stage which is always occupied by eminent artists from the region exhibiting their talent and entertaining visitors. This is one such Puja presentation where people stop once to see the pandal, once to see the idols and once to enjoy the cultural programmes. This year, the Puja committee is celebrating its 70th anniversary and to mark the occasion, the members decided to take a step forward and generate social awareness.

12 flexes are installed in the pandal premises each carrying an important message about road safety and etiquette. “We see people ignoring traffic rule every now and then, which causes a jam. We are now accustomed with unnecessary honking and seldom we make way for Ambulances to pass. These are basic etiquette required to ensure road safety and that is what we wanted to aware people about,” says Tuhin Deshmukh, a member of the Puja committee.

He says, “Puja is not only about pandal decoration” and he is indeed right on that. Traffic has emerged as a serious issue in Silchar with the rise in number of vehicles plying on the road. The death toll due to accident too is on the rise, “Apart from all of that, we have noticed that whenever there is a collision between two vehicles, minor or major, it turns to a brawl in no time. One shouting at other, hitting each other while a long queue of vehicles waiting on either side. We have tried to address those uses with messages on our flexes,” Deshmukh adds.

There were three issues that the committee had shortlisted of which, road safety and traffic awareness was finalised, “The other topics were also very important ones. One was women empowerment and the other was raising a girl child. The members unanimously decided to go ahead with this and thus we started working on it,” the committee member informs.

Once the topic was finalised, the dilemma was to do it in English or Bengali. After hours of brainstorming and discussions, Madhyasahar Sanskriti Samiti decided to print the messages in Bengali. Associate Editor of Dainik Jugashanka, Monomohan Misra and Sweta Choudhury helped with the theme write-up.

Famous writer and psychotherapist Nathaniel Branden once said, “The first step towards change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”

Madhyasahar Puja committee has taken the first step, now it is up to the residents to accept it.

Here are some pictures from the pandal.