The mother of all festivals, Durga Puja, is round the corner and every year, post Durga Puja, awards and prizes are showered upon various puja committees, who come out with the best decorated pandal, or best display of Goddess Durga’s pratima or best concept, or most clean and environment friendly pandal, of a town or a city.
But, Poddar Toyota situated at Chirukandi on the outskirts of Silchar, and its Managing Director, Vivek Poddar, has come up with an innovative idea this time round. This year, as a part of its corporate social responsibility, Vivek Poddar and his team would give away 70 plus trophies as part of “Sarad Sanmaan Awards” to Durga pujas being held at ‘tea gardens’ and ‘rural areas’ of Cachar district.
Informing this to the media on Monday evening, Vivek Poddar, said, “Two prizes each for best decorative pandal and the other for the best displayed Goddess Durga’s pratima, would be given to each of the seven assembly constituencies of Cachar district. The tea gardens of Cachar district too have been segregated into four zones, which are, Happy Valley, North Cachar, Dewan along with Lalong, and Chatla Bill. The prizes would be separate for each zone and each constituency.”
Vivek Poddar, talking to Northeast Now, further said, “Whosoever wins, or that rural puja committee, they would be later on incorporated by the Poddar group to take up skill development programmes, health camps, job opportunities, and its like, to give these people a chance to get better recognition in bigger platforms.”
He added, “No fees would be taken from these rural Durga Puja committees to take part in this competition. A team of elite group of tea garden stalwarts of Cachar district would be the judges of this competition, and they would travel the length and breadth of Cachar district, in their respective zones, from Sasthi to Navami, to choose the winners.
Not only that, live streaming of aratis and the pujas being performed, in these rural backdrop, would also be showcased through Poddar Toyota’s facebook account, Vivek Poddar said.
