AGARTALA, Oct 8 (TIWN): Four days of festivities, four days of glittering Agartala, and suddenly it’s over. Sentiments apart, Dashami is the day when the immersion of Durga Idols start, and the administration takes up a tiresome yet essential process of maintaining peace and order.

Firstly, three days have been fixed for the immersion process. It is to be noted that the 5-6 day process of immersion, which was followed earlier, led to traffic snarls because of the pre-immersion processions..

The local police stations will call on the organizations in their respective jurisdiction and inform all the necessary procedures, routes and dates regarding the immersion process. The local administratione also suggested that the Puja Committees should decide the timing of the immersion processions and inform the administration of their plan well in advance. Thus, a particular puja committee need not wait for a long time at the ghats. The AMC commissioner Milind Ramteke  appealed for better coordination between the puja committees and administrative bodies.

The police has already detailed the process of immersion procedures to be followed. The puja committees have been asked to provide all the necessary information like date and time of immersion procession and it’s originating point, route to be taken, expected time of completion of immersion etc. For precautionary measures, details like the number of people participating in the procession, presence of band parties, if any, presence of generators, and other important details need to be submitted. Puja committees have to give an undertaking declaring that they will not use loudspeakers or burst firecrackers during the procession.

The AMC also has a huge part to play in the immersion process; they have created temporary bins outside the ghats where all the non-degradable materials, like the potteries and the flowers, are dumped. AMC ensure that after the token immersion of the clay idol, it is promptly picked up using a crane and disposed off. Additional lights have been put up at all ghats. Last year, arrangements for the immersion of idols were made at three river ghats. Over 60 volunteers were engaged by the civic body at various locations.