SOP angers Sound & Light Owners; they pledge not to provide mike during Assembly polls

Oct. 5: In view of ongoing pandemic, the Cachar District Administration on 2 October has come up with Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for celebration of Durga Puja, 2020. However, there has been strong resentment from various quarters in Cachar district on the “excessive restrictions” in the said SOP. The ‘excessive restrictions’ has drawn strong repercussions also from the idol makers. On Monday, Cachar Sound & Light Owners Welfare Association held a press meet wherein they raised voices of dissatisfaction on the SOP.

“The SOP is clear in its attempt to make us jobless during this festive session, which we hope will also be the same during Kali Puja. So we want to make a point very clear today to the district administration and political parties that we will not provide sound and light during the forthcoming Assembly polls and Municipal election. So in a nutshell, we have decided to boycott Durga Puja, Kali Puja & forthcoming elections,” said the members of the Sound & Light Association.

They further informed that they will also go to meet the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar and inform her of their decision in the backdrop of the SOP issued by the administration. They also stated, “We will appeal to the Deputy Commissioner to tell us the way how to sustain our families in the absence of any work.”

Expressing anguish, another member of the association said, “Before Coronavirus can kills us, we will have to die of starvation along with our families for being jobless during the Durga Puja. Last year too, severe restrictions were issued on the use of sound, which led us to protest. It is only then that we got the permission to work. But this year, it has been extreme. The SOP has been the ultimate nail in our coffin.”

Meanwhile, several people of Cachar including the netizens in social media have expressed utter surprise as to the correlation between playing loudspeakers and increase in the number of coronavirus positive cases. Cachar District BJP has also objected the SOP and written to the Deputy Commissioner for reconsidering certain aspects within it. BJP District President, Kaushik Rai too wrote, “Sound system may be allowed in Puja Pandals”