KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, March 31: Festivity of Ramnavami jhanda processions was marred in the steel city as majority of the Ramnavami Akhara organisers refrained from taking out the processions in protest against the administration’s restrictive measures pertaining to the mode of the processions.
Instead of taking out the processions, the Akhara participants have either staged dharnas at strategic locations like Sakchi roundabout and Jugsalai Chowk Bazaar, demanding the administration to call off the restrictions.
The head of a prominent Akhara at Kashidih in Sakchi has even given a call for the Jamshedpur bandh tomorrow.
The district administration had announced a ban on the use of trailers and also the normal use of DJs during the Ramnavami processions triggering protest by several Akhara organisers.
Acting on the decision, the police on Thursday seized a trailer which was being decorated by one of the Akhara committees at the Aam Bagan ground in Sakchi. As soon as the trailer was seized, the Akhara organisers had started pressurising the administration to release the vehicle. But as the request did not yield any result, Abhay Singh, president of central Akhara Samiti on Thursday appealed the remaining Akhara organisers not to take out the processions.
Despite the call for a boycott appeal, several Akhara organisers took out the processions and immersed the religious jhanda in the Kharkai and Subernarekha.
Large number people, including women and children had assembled along the main roads in Sakchi, Bistupur, Sonari and other localities to have a glimpse of the traditional processions, but were disappointed in absence of the processions.
