THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Oct 9: Palamu administration has beefed up its vigil for the ongoing Durga Puja.
DC Shashi Ranjan, SP Reeshma Ramesan, Additional Collector Kundan Kumar, City Commissioner Md Jawed Hussain and different ranks of police set up conducted a detour to the town Daltonganj and its downtown as a part of the CBM (Confidence Building Measure) ahead of the immersion of the idols of the Durga Puja celebration.
Declining public interest in flag marches
Sources said in the nineties flag march used to draw intense interest from the public as then women and girls used to have a look at the flag march from atop their houses and the pedestrians then used to stand across the road to watch it.
Now, it has changed completely. No one bothers about it. There is a deep sense of indifference to it.
DC Shashi Ranjan, SP Reeshma Ramesan, Additional Collector Kundan Kumar and others sweated out much and detoured to the town covering 4 km plus on foot. The sky was overcast when the detour was on. Had there come even a minor drizzle, disintegration to their detour was just unavoidable.
The walking brigade passed through a couple of the Puja pandals and places of worship of different faith. Everything was fine.
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Locations of concern
But there are thorny locations like Bairya More in the town Daltonganj and Neora, Kankari, Pathra under the Chainpur police station limits where communal harmony gets a miss very often.
Sources said, on an average, town like Daltonganj sees at least four or five such flag marches a year like when there is the Ramnavmi festival, Muharram procession, Holi and where political rallies full of heat and passion and diametrically opposed to each other are taken out.
Erosion of civil society participation
A surfeit of flag marches has taken off its sheen and appeal. Again such a march has become a 100 per cent tool of the administration where in the past in Palamu during the stint of then DCs to name a few, Ameeta Paul, S Jalja, Aradhna Patnaik, Amitabh Kaushal etc, such a flag march used to see law-abiding civil society activists drawn from both the communities walking down the streets for peace and harmony.
Sources reminded in the last six or seven years or so participation of the civil society activists in such a march of peace and harmony is conspicuous for their absence. They are no longer invited to take part in it. They are invited to peace committee meeting but when it comes to walking down together the civil society activists are kept at arm’s length. One fails to fathom the meaning of it, said sources.
Sources said no hell would fall on earth if peace committee members are offered to walk in together with the battery of civil and police officials.
“Why the concern for peace and harmony is the monopoly with the administration only?” quipped sources.
