New Town Durga Puja has drawn large crowds with a lotus-themed pavilion built around a water body at City Square, while the organisers have also highlighted the permission and venue-rent pressures involved in staging the event in the planned township.
The installation, themed ‘Padma Bhushan’, uses wooden boats from Balagarh as petals of a giant lotus. The flower appears to rise from the water, with the idol placed above it. Additional petals, pollen, bees and honeycombs form part of the structure, while lighting creates the intended immersive effect.
Artist Rintu Das said the theme carries two meanings. The lotus is an ornament for the goddess, while ‘Padma Bhushan’ also refers to one of India’s highest civilian awards. According to Das, the installation seeks recognition for Bengal’s art and culture. The organisers have displayed photographs of people from West Bengal who received the Padma Bhushan between 1954 and 2026 in the puja committee’s office.
The pavilion combines a contemporary theme with a traditional idol, an approach that is not always used in theme-based pujas. The organisers said the installation was designed to convey a close relationship with nature, with the water body and lotus forming the central visual elements.
The event has also become a site of political and administrative attention. Industrialist Lakshmikanta Kar is the president of New Town Sarbojanin and has held the position for several years. The committee includes lawyers and a former senior airport official. State Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Dilip Ghosh is serving as chief adviser, while Rinku Majumdar Ghosh is an adviser. Union minister Sukanta Majumdar and Dilip Ghosh jointly inaugurated the puja.
Kar said the committee pays the New Town Kolkata Development Authority, or NKDA, a substantial rent for the field and claimed that no other puja in the state pays a comparable amount for its venue. He also said the committee faced difficulties in securing permission this year and sought assistance from Dilip Ghosh and Rinku Majumdar Ghosh.
The report links those difficulties to a change in the political affiliations associated with the organising group. It says the committee had been viewed by some as aligned with the former ruling group over the previous four years, leading to questions over whether the event would be permitted and who would control it. The existing organisers eventually retained control, while their political alignment was perceived to have shifted.
Kar denied any direct political connection and said the puja was organised with residents across New Town. He said residential complexes are selected through a lottery to conduct cultural programmes on different days, and that all visitors receive the same hospitality regardless of political affiliation. He also said Rajarhat-New Town MLA Piyush Kanoria did not visit the pavilion despite being invited.
The puja’s public programme includes lighting along roads leading towards City Square and cultural performances by residents of different complexes. The organisers said the event has continued to attract visitors and public figures, including filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, who travelled from Mumbai, and the state’s director general of police. The venue, its permissions, rent arrangements and public programming together show how large cultural events in planned urban districts depend on the management of shared land, local authority approvals and organised resident participation.
