Leaders at helm, Dasehra festival not untouched by political colour

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, October 23

Ahead of civic polls and General Election, the festival of Dasehra is being organised on political lines in the city. Politicians are holding the festival in their constituencies to nurse their electorates.

With veteran BJP leader Lakshmi Kanta Chawla at the helm in Durgiana temple, a massive Dasehra festival will be held at the open Defence land adjoining the temple tomorrow. Dussehra celebration has been organised at the ground for the past several decades. Politicians of major political parties find ample space on the stage erected on the ground.

Like every year, former MLA Inderbir Singh Bolaria and his team have made arrangements at Mata Bhadra Kali Mandir in the South assembly segment. During his association with the SAD, he used to invite Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal as the chief guest during the Dasehra festival. At Chheharta area, former Deputy Chief Minister OP Soni has been organising Dasehra celebrations. As he has not been feeling well for some time, his associate, former councillor Surinder Shinda is handling the affairs this time.

On Dasehra festival taking a political colour, Anil Joshi, former minister in the SAD-BJP coalition government, said, “When a politician finds space on the stage, any event would attract a political colour.” He had formed a Dasehra Committee Amritsar North, as he contests elections from the same assembly constituency. It used to hold a massive Dasehra festival every year. He said this time, members of the committee decided not to host the Dasehra festival as it was preoccupied with raising a temple in the Ranjit Avenue locality. “We do not collect donations for the Dasehra festival as members themselves contribute about Rs 25 lakh.”

Single window system for NOC

After a train mowed down about 60 people, including women and children, while watching Dasehra at Jodda Phatak railway crossing, on October 19, 2018, the government made a provision for single window system for granting no-objection certificate (NOC) to the organisers of Dasehra. The application for this is to be routed through the office of DCP (Law & Order).