Cuttack, Sept. 24: A Puja committee here has adopted a humanitarian concept of serving the needy while shunning pomp and gaiety this Dussehra.

The Choudhury Bazaar Puja Committee, which pioneered the use of tarkashi (silver filigree) for the idol backdrop, has decided to make their festival a 'simple affair'. They have decided not to replace silver segments of the medha (the background of the idol) with gold. Instead, they will spend a chunk of their Puja budget to serve orphan children and the disabled.

'Keeping in view the death of two advisers to our committee, we have decided to shun pomp and gaiety. This year, we will make it a simple affair. We will donate food and clothing to the orphans and wheelchairs or tricycles to the disabled,' said committee president Debashis Ray. The deceased advisers, Chakradhar Behera, 80, and Debi Ray, 74, were the committee's former vice-president and secretary, respectively.

The 145-year-old Puja became a star attraction when it had come up with the first chandi medha by using 250kg of silver for the idol's backdrop in 1955. An organiser said: 'At that time, the style had no parallel in the country so far as silver filigree was concerned.'

The mandap continued to be a crowd-puller for its chandi medha for the goddess till the style had been picked up in 1991 by the Sheikh Bazaar Puja Committee. Since then, 22 other mandaps have followed the tradition.

In 2002, the committee had set another trend by coming up with a crown of pure gold for the goddess. In 2008, it had started the process of converting the silver filigree backdrop into a tarkashi of gold. Since then, five of the 30-odd silver segments of the chandi medha have been replaced by using nearly 5.5kg of gold, and an Om signia of 2kg is installed on the crest of the chandi medha.

But this year, no new addition in the form of gold has been done.

'Around six members of our Puja committee will serve lunch to around 110 inmates of an orphanage at Choudwar on Navami. Each of the orphans will also be given new clothes,' Ray said.

'We will also provide wheelchairs or tricycles to at least two disabled persons on the same day,' said committee secretary Purna Chandra Singh.

'Of the Rs 20 lakh budget for this year's Puja, we have earmarked Rs 1.5 lakh for distribution of food and clothes among the orphans and wheelchairs or tricycles among the disabled,' Singh said.

The committee has set another tradition of distributing dahi pakhala (curd water rice) and janhi poda (ridge gourd roast) to the people on Navami. 'This year, we are making arrangements for distributing dahi pakhala among 8,000 persons,' said the secretary.

'The Puja continues to be a crowd-puller during the festival with the singular touch of gold in the chandi medha and gold jewelleries for the goddess and other deities,' said Bidanasi resident Satyajit Roy.

The Puja mandap has a silver filigree backdrop made of 250kg silver worth more than Rs 1 crore and 23kg gold worth about Rs 5.75 crore used for the crown, necklace and jewelleries for the goddess and the other deities.