By Saibal Gupta

Kolkata, Sep 2 (IANS): Mamata Banerjee became the chief minister of West Bengal for the third consecutive time and to commemorate her huge success a community puja in the outskirts of the city has decided to develop the idol of Goddess Durga on the likes of the chief minister.

The organising club - Nazrul Park Unnayan Samiti located at Baguhati in the eastern fringes of the city will have its theme -- "Mamata, You are the only Hope" -- an endeavour to showcase the mass beneficiary schemes of the chief minister to reach out to the marginalised sections of the society.

"This is not political publicity. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the last ten years has worked tirelessly not only to change the image of the state but also to provide government benefits to those who have been out of the mainstream of the development of the state. This is social awareness and not political propaganda," one of the organisers of the puja said.

The pandal of the Puja this year will portray the popular "Lakkhir Bhandar" scheme, a monthly dole scheme for women of each family ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. However, the main attraction of the Puja will be the fibreglass-made statue of Goddess Durga which will be in the form of the chief minister.

The ten hands of Goddess Durga replicating the chief minister will be shown reaching out to the people will all her popular beneficiary schemes like Kanyashree to make the girls self-reliant, Yuvashree for the youth, Duare Sarkar, government at the doorsteps, Parai Parai Samadhan, solution of problems at the local levels and other beneficiary schemes.

Potter Montu Pal said that the fibreglass-made idol will be prepared keeping in mind the facial impression of the chief minister. "Like the chief minister, the idol will sport white saree and bathroom sleepers. In the background of the idol, there will be the logo of 'Biswa Bangla'. And the ten hands of the idol will carry replicas of the ten most popular developmental schemes," he said.

"Durga puja is symbolic where goddess Durga is the destroyer of the evil forces in the society and here our chief minister is the people's true representative who has been working tirelessly to make our lives beautiful. On one hand she is trying to bring investment for the state, improving the economy and on the other hand she is distributing those benefits to the people. It seems that she, like goddess Durga, is working with ten hands and so she becomes the theme of our puja," the organiser said.

"In this pandemic situation when all the other states have been grappling in the dark, she was the lone chief minister who was not only successful in controlling the raging pandemic but like a mother gave food and shelter to all the people who came to the state. She didn't discriminate between the people from our state and those from other states. This image of Mamata Banerjee should be an eye opener for all the other states," he added.

"The people of West Bengal are reaping the benefits of her developmental works. Now we want the people of the entire country to do the same. So, we have selected the theme of Goddess Durga with her 10 hands but in the form of the chief minister," he said.