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Three-month festive season in Cuttack district ends peacefully

CUTTACK: The Cuttack district administration, particularly the police force, heaved a sigh of relief on Sunday as the biggest festival of the district -- Baliyatra in Cuttack city -- came to an end thereby bringing the curtains down on the three-month festive season.

No major untoward incident was reported from the festival site during the week-long celebrations giving a lot of relief to the police force.

“It was definitely a hectic schedule for the force in maintaining the law and order and contain the crime, particularly in the city during the season which began with Ganesh Puja in August last. However, we cannot think of a break yet as the paper works during the past three months have mounted up in the meantime. The police stations need to update their records while the review meetings would continue for the next fortnight or so,” said district superintendent of police S. K. Priyadarshi.

However, the police came in for a lot of praise for ensuring an incident-free celebration that witnessed heavy gatherings on all the eight days. “Apart from some minor incidents of theft, eve-teasing there was not a single case of cognizable crime reported from the Baliytra grounds on any day,” the SP pointed out.

Even there was a drastic fall in cases like eve-teasing, pickpocket and hooliganism by drunkards that are generally associated in such type of gatherings. “Thanks to the innovative techniques adopted by the police in punishing these elements by asking them to kneel down on specially erected ‘Madua Mandaps’ at the entrance of the fare, these petty crimes were brought under control,” feel the revellers.

The festival began on November 24 on the day of Kartika Purnima. This year the State government had extended the festival by one day and the celebrations went on for nine days.

“Although, the entertainment at the festival would end from Monday morning because the administration would snap electric and water supply, the trading in ethnic household articles such as chaki, sila (stone grinders), kula, tokei (articles made of bamboo) at the site would continue for at least another week.

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