Normal Life Hit Across Nadia Due To Complete Lockdown

IG, South Bengal, Rajeev Mishra, DIG (Murshidabad Range) Sunil Kumar Choudhary, SP, Krishnagar PD, Zafar Ajmal Kidwai and Additional SP (HQ), Bidisha Kalita visited two containment zones –Ghurni and Roypara – to take stock of the present condition.

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News       

KRISHNAGAR, 8 AUG: Normal life came to a grinding halt in Nadia on Saturday as a complete lockdown was enforced across the district to stem the spread of COVID-19 cases.

All public transport, offices and other commercial establishments, barring those dealing with essential services, remained closed as the strict restrictions were clamped.

It is part of the twice-a-week lockdown imposed in the state since 23 July to break the chain of the infection.

Essential services like medicine shops and health establishments remained open as these were kept out of the purview of the complete shutdown. Petrol pumps are also allowed to remain open on the lockdown days. Security has been tightened to enforce the lockdown and police personnel were seen patrolling major traffic intersections across the district.

IG, South Bengal, Rajeev Mishra, DIG (Murshidabad Range) Sunil Kumar Choudhary, SP, Krishnagar PD, Zafar Ajmal Kidwai and Additional SP (HQ), Bidisha Kalita visited two containment zones –Ghurni and Roypara – to take stock of the present condition.

Later, Mr Mishra held a meeting with the senior police officials in the SP office.

Meanwhile, Nadia reported 72 Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours on Saturday.

According to the Nadia district health department bulletin, the total Covid-19 positive cases stand at 1219 till today including 434 active cases and 554 discharged from Covid hospitals.

Though, no death has been reported in the last 24 hours, so the cumulative toll remained at 6.

The health department bulletin also revealed that 744 samples collected for RT-PCR and 454 samples for Rapid Antigen Test in the last 24 hours.

A total of 46078 samples have been collected for RT-PCR till today and the administration have received reports of 44262 samples. Reports of 1816 samples are still pending.

As per bulletin, 33 samples collected for Rapid Antigen Test tested positive out of 454 samples.

“This RAT report reveals only 7.26 % people are infected of novel coronavirus while the 92.74 percent of people are not affected by the dreaded virus,” a senior health official said.

As per the bulletin, 15 patients have been admitted in the isolation centers in the last 24 hours and the cumulative figure stands at 7670 where 7637 patients have already been discharged from the centers. “This means 99 % people have already been recovered which is remarkable compared to the recovery rate in the country,” an official said.

IIT-Guwahati and Imperial College, London, develop 'meta-grid' to boost LED performance

IIT-Guwahati and Imperial College, London, develop 'meta-grid' to boost LED performance 

 

A ‘meta-grid’ is a specially-designed, optimised, two-dimensional array of specific nanoparticles, of size much smaller than the wavelength of light. 

 

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News        

KOLKATA, 7 AUG: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati and Imperial College London, UK, have developed a tailored ‘meta-grid’ of nanoparticles that could make light-emitting diodes (LEDs) brighter, energy-efficient and durable.

‘Meta-grid’ or ‘metamaterial grid’ is a specifically patterned array (grid) of nanoparticles acting as metamaterials, capable of exhibiting extraordinary optical properties.

In today’s world, LEDs are deployed almost everywhere— from traffic lights to backlighting for electronic displays, smartphones, large billboards, decorative lightings, water purification, and decontamination of infected surfaces. An increase in LED light output would significantly reduce energy needs on a large scale, and therefore, will contribute towards curbing global warming and climate change.

Over the years, a significant research drive towards this objective is in exploring new materials for LED-chip encapsulation, mostly by deploying either higher refractive index glasses or epoxy materials incorporated with filler powders or nanoparticle-loaded-epoxy or engineered epoxy resins, etc.

However, these techniques either make the LED chips bulkier or their fabrication becomes more challenging and less economically viable for mass production.

Towards this goal, Dr. Debabrata Sikdar, Assistant Professor, from IIT Guwahati, along with Prof. Sir John B. Pendry and Prof. Alexei A. Kornyshev from Imperial College London, has developed a nanoparticle ‘meta-grid’, which needs to be placed at an appropriate location within the epoxy casing of the LEDs, for improving light output from LEDs.

A ‘meta-grid’ is a specially-designed, optimised, two-dimensional array of specific nanoparticles, of size much smaller than the wavelength of light. 

The findings have been recently published in Light: Science & Applications journal of the Nature Publishing Group. While prescribing minimal changes to the manufacturing process, the research team has developed this novel scheme of boosting transmission of light generated inside an LED chip across the LED-chip/encapsulant interface. This is achieved by reducing the Fresnel reflection loss at the chip/encapsulant interface, within a fixed photon escape cone, based on tuning the destructive interference phenomena with help of the ‘meta-grid’. 

The technique has revealed optimal design parameters for such meta-grids to produce greater light output over any narrow/broadband emission spectrum, besides boosting LEDs’ lifetime by eliminating heating of the chip from unwanted reflections within the chip.

The techniques deployable by itself or in combination with other existing techniques applied for increasing LED’s efficiency. The entire original theoretical framework needed for the invention has been developed in-house and is rigorously tested against standard commercial simulation tools. The research team plans to fabricate a prototype device within one year and corroborate their theoretical predictions with experiments.

The theoretical models, developed by Dr. Sikdar and his collaborators, allow finding out the optimal conditions for the design of the nanoparticle ‘meta-grid’ layer. Material and composition of nanoparticles and parameters, such as their sizes, average interparticle spacing and the distance from the surface of the LED chip, are optimised to achieve the maximum enhancement in light extraction from the LED chip into its encapsulating casing, over any emission spectral range of a typical LED.

Speaking about the merits of their ‘meta-grid’ scheme for LED light enhancement, Dr. Debabrata Sikdar, Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, IIT Guwahati, said, “With the continuous advancement in nanofabrication technology, it is now possible to fabricate metallic nanoparticles which are mostly monodisperse or having a very narrow spread. Still, there could always be some randomness in particle size and/or position, flatness of grid, and variation in refractive index due to fabrication error or material defects, which are unavoidable. Effects from most of these inaccuracies can be estimated from our tolerance study and it has shown the robustness of our scheme”.

Dr. Sikdar further added, “In this invention, the effects of the ‘meta-grid’ on the standard commercial LEDs, based on group III–V materialsare demonstrated. However, the proposed concept of enhancing light transmission from an emissive layer to its encapsulant casing can be extended to other types of light emitting devices hosting an emissive-layer/encapsulant interface. Generally, our nanoparticle ‘meta-grid’ scheme for enhanced light extraction could potentially cater to a wider range of optical gadgets, not just semiconductor LEDs.”

Speaking about the work, Prof.Alexei A. Kornyshev,Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London,stated, “There could be different engineering solutions for the meta-grids in the LED-chips.  One of them would be to use drying-mediated self-assembly of nanoparticles, e.g. made of silver or alternative less-lossy plasmonic materials capped with appropriate ligands, to form free-standing the Sikdar–Premaratne–Cheng ‘plasmene’ sheets. Those nanoparticle monolayer sheets could be made stretchable for precise tuning of the interparticle separation and then stamped on the LED chip before the encapsulating casing is fabricated. The spacingbetween the ‘meta-grid’ and the LED chip surface can be controlled via the thickness of the plasmene’s substrate”.

Talking about their work, Prof. Sir John B. Pendry, Department of Physics, Imperial College London,said,“The simplicity of the proposed scheme and the clear physics underpinning it should make it robust and, hopefully, easily adaptable to the existing LED manufacturing process. It is obvious that with larger light extraction efficiency, LEDs will provide greater energy savings as well as longer lifetimes of the devices”.

The research team believes that the work will definitely have a global impact on the versatile LED based applications and their multi-billion-dollar market worldwide.

Courtesy: Images from IIT-G

DM, Nadia fails to convince Mamata in video conference, cancels previous 7-day lockdown order, Rescheduled lockdown will come into force for two days - 13 and 14 August

DM, Nadia fails to convince Mamata in video conference, cancels previous 7-day lockdown order

Rescheduled lockdown will come into force for two days - 13 and 14 August

Political observers in the district, however, said that some senior IAS officials have lobbied against Mr Goel before the chief minister who finally disagreed with him. This apart, a rival lobby against Mahua Moitra also played a pivotal role to go the CM against the decision taken by the Nadia district administration regarding lockdown.  

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News        

KRISHNAGAR, 7 AUG: Within hours after the intervention from chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the Nadia district administration, today, cancelled the earlier week-long lockdown scheduled to begin from 7 August midnight to 14 August midnight in the specific areas across the district and re-announced the lockdown schedule which will be imposed and enforced for two days from 0.01 hrs on 13 August to 11.59 hrs on 14 August.

The district magistrate, Vibhu Goel in his fresh order said that the re-schedule of lockdown dates have been considered after reviewing the several request and appeals from different quarters to relax the previous order.

This apart, “Whereas, after detailed analysis of occurrence of Covid-19 cases during recent past in the context of geographical distribution and frequency and in view of spatial locations of containment zones and considering the population density and floating population, it is felt that larger containment zones are required to be defined”, Mr Goel mentioned in his order.

To contain the sudden surge of infection at few places in the district, the administration and the ruling party MP, Mahua Moitra had felt the need of immediate complete lockdown for at least seven days and accordingly, Mr Goel had announced a 7-day complete lockdown in the extended containment areas from 7 August midnight to 14 August midnight.

The municipalities, which have been taken under purview of lockdown, are Krishnagar, Chakdaha, Gayeshpur, Haringhata, Kalyani, Ranaghat, Shantipur and Coopers Camp Notified Area. This apart, 25 gram-panchayat areas across the district have also been taken under the purview of lockdown.

But, Miss Banerjee today convened a video conference (VC) with the district administration where she clearly instructed that there was no need to announce a complete lockdown for seven days at a stretch.

Sources placed in the district collectorate office said, “During the conference, Mr Goel tried to convince Miss Banerjee saying that the decision for clamping lockdown for seven days was taken after reviewing the versions of the local residents and ruling party leaders. But, Miss Banerjee was not convinced by the logic placed by Mr Goel. Miss Banerjee even asked him to consider the ‘religious events’ before deciding to implement any lockdown”.

Political observers in the district, however, said that some senior IAS officials have lobbied against Mr Goel before the chief minister who finally disagreed with him. This apart, a rival lobby against Mahua Moitra also played a pivotal role to go the CM against the decision taken by the Nadia district administration regarding lockdown.  

Soon after the meeting, Mr Goel cancelled the previous order of lockdown and rescheduled the lockdown dates reducing it from seven days to two days.  

Meanwhile, Nadia reported 53 Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours on Friday.

According to the Nadia district health department bulletin, the total Covid-19 positive cases stand at 1147 till today including 415 active cases and 538 discharged from Covid hospitals.

Though, no death has been reported in the last 24 hours, so the cumulative toll remained at 6.

The health department bulletin also revealed that 688 samples collected for RT-PCR and 412 samples for Rapid Antigen Test in the last 24 hours.

A total of 45294 samples have been collected for RT-PCR till today and the administration have received reports of 43097 samples. Reports of 2197 samples are still pending.

As per bulletin, 28 samples collected for Rapid Antigen Test tested positive out of 412 samples.

“This RAT report reveals only 6.09 % people are infected of novel coronavirus while the 93.91 percent of people are not affected by the dreaded virus,” a senior health official said.

As per the bulletin, 38 patients have been admitted in the isolation centers in the last 24 hours and the cumulative figure stands at 7655 where 7579 patients have already been discharged from the centers. “This means 99 % people have already been recovered which is remarkable compared to the recovery rate in the country,” an official said.

According to the health bulletin, 780 Covid positive patients have been admitted at the facilities till today while 559 patients have been recovered from the disease. Thus the recovery rate is 71.66 % which is far better than the average recovery rate of the state and country, a health official said.

“Effective clinical management of the moderate and severe cases through a well-executed standard of care protocol has ensured high rate of recovery among the Covid patients,” the official said.

The district administration, health officials and the ruling party leaders are not happy with these figures as the district has witnessed a sudden spike of Covid positive cases as well as infection in the last few days where around 400 persons have been infected. A few places including the municipal areas across the district have been detected as the prime areas where a certain level of community transmission could have been started.

The areas where the number of Covid positive cases is high are Chakdah (143), Chakdah municipality (142), Gayeshpur municipality (49), Haringhata municipality (47), Kalyani municipality (93), Krishnagar municipality (42), Krishnagar-I (50), Ranaghat municipality (60), Ranaghat-I (40), Ranaghat-II (62), Tehatta-I (79) and Tehatta-II (44).

Know the master architects :A family involves in building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya

 

His grandfather Prabhashankar Sompura had designed the Somnath temple in 1949 on the Gujarat coast inaugurated by the first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, in 1951. Prabhashankar was later honoured with the Padma Shri.

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News       

KRISHNAGAR, 6 AUG: A 78-year-old man, who first visited the site where the Babri Masjid once stood more than 30 years ago, will lead the family team for building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Chandrakant Sompura, now 78, had designed the Ram Mandir in 1989 at the request of the then Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief, late Ashok Singhal. Industrialist Ghanshyamdas Birla asked him if he would take up the Ram Mandir project, and introduced him to Singhal.

Chandrakant Sompura is the 15th generation of the Ahmedabad-based family that has been into temple architecture, having constructed over 200 temples  in India and abroad.                                                         

His grandfather Prabhashankar Sompura had designed the Somnath temple in 1949 on the Gujarat coast inaugurated by the first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, in 1951. Prabhashankar was later honoured with the Padma Shri.

The family has a long list of temples to its credit including Akshardham in Gujarat, Swaminarayan mandir in Mumbai and Birla Mandir in Calcutta.

But for the family, the Somnath temple is the closest to their heart. The Sompuras believe that their ancestors were taught the art of temple building by the divine architect Vishwakarma himself.

According to the report, Sompura had drawn up 2-3 plans for the temple, one of which was approved by the VHP, which had then taken up the task of building the temple. A wooden model was made, and at the Kumbh Mela that followed, the model was placed before the assembled sadhus, who gave their approval.

Following the verdict of the Supreme Court last year, the design of the temple was modified and it would be almost double the size of what was originally planned.

According to the version of Sompura, the temple will be constructed in Nagara style of architecture and will have five domes instead of two. The project is likely to be completed in the next three years once the construction work commences following the bhoomi pujan event held on Wednesday.

According to the report written by Leena Misra in The Indian Express, the temple has been planned in the Nagar ‘shaili’ (a style of temple architecture where the temple tower is built over the sanctum sanctorum. The other major style is the Dravidian, which includes gopurams), and is far bigger than what had been originally planned.

Three more spires have been added, one in front and two at the sides, to extend the gudh mandap (the covered porch); the number of columns has gone up from around 160 in the original plan to 366 (160 on the ground floor, 132 on first floor, 74 on second floor); the width of the stairway to the ‘Ram Darbar’ on the first floor has been expanded from 6 feet to 16 feet. The height of the temple has been increased from 141 feet to 161 feet, its width from 160 feet to 235 feet, and its length from 280 feet to 360 feet.

The expansion was made because the government wanted space for “more people”, says Ashish, son of Sompura. As per the plan, each column will have 16 idols, which will include the ‘Dashavataras’, the ‘chausath joginis’, all the incarnations of Shiva, and the 12 incarnations of the Goddess Saraswati.

The unique feature of the Ram Mandir will be the octagonal shape of the sanctum sanctorum, in keeping with the design provided in the shastras for a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

Nadia crosses 1K Covid positive cases with 71.62 % recovery cases and 8.25 % infection rate

Nadia crosses 1K Covid positive cases with 71.62 % recovery cases and 8.25 % infection rate 

According to the health bulletin, 740 Covid positive patients have been admitted at the facilities till today while 530 patients have been recovered from the disease. Thus the recovery rate is 71.62 % which is far better than the average recovery rate of the state and country, a health official said.

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News         

KRISHNAGAR, 6 AUG: Nadia reported the highest single-day spike of 95 Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours on Thursday.

According to the Nadia district health department bulletin, the total Covid-19 positive cases stand at 1094 till today including 371 active cases and 515 discharged from Covid hospitals.

Though, no death has been reported in the last 24 hours, so the cumulative toll remained at 6.

The health department bulletin also revealed that 675 samples collected for RT-PCR and 315 samples for Rapid Antigen Test in the last 24 hours.

A total of 44606 samples have been collected for RT-PCR till today and the administration have received reports of 42562 samples. Reports of 2044 samples are still pending.

As per bulletin, 26 samples collected for Rapid Antigen Test tested positive out of 315 samples.

“This RAT report reveals only 8.25 % people are infected of novel coronavirus while the 91.75 percent of people are not affected by the dreaded virus,” a senior health official said.

As per the bulletin, 98 patients have been admitted in the isolation centers in the last 24 hours and the cumulative figure stands at 7617 where 7480 patients have already been discharged from the centers. “This means 98.20 % people have already been recovered which is remarkable compared to the recovery rate in the country,” an official said.

According to the health bulletin, 740 Covid positive patients have been admitted at the facilities till today while 530 patients have been recovered from the disease. Thus the recovery rate is 71.62 % which is far better than the average recovery rate of the state and country, a health official said.

“Effective clinical management of the moderate and severe cases through a well-executed standard of care protocol has ensured high rate of recovery among the Covid patients,” the official said.

The district administration, health officials and the ruling party leaders are not happy with these figures as the district has witnessed a sudden spike of Covid positive cases as well as infection in the last few days where around 400 persons have been infected. A few places including the municipal areas across the district have been detected as the prime areas where a certain level of community transmission could have been started.

The areas where the number of Covid positive cases is high are Chakdah (135), Chakdah municipality (141), Gayeshpur municipality (48), Haringhata municipality (47), Kalyani municipality (96), Krishnagar municipality (40), Krishnagar-I (39), Ranaghat municipality (57), Ranaghat-I (38), Ranaghat-II (53), Tehatta-I (76) and Tehatta-II (41).

To contain the sudden surge of infection at few places in the district, the administration has announced a 7-day complete lockdown in the extended containment areas from 7 August midnight to 14 August midnight.

The municipalities, which have been taken under purview of lockdown, are Krishnagar, Chakdaha, Gayeshpur, Haringhata, Kalyani, Ranaghat, Shantipur and Coopers Camp Notified Area.

This apart, the lockdown is being declared in the gram-panchayat areas such as Brittihuda, Chapra-I, Chapra-II, Mahatpur, Debagram, Mira-I, Bhanderkhola, Bhatjangla, Deypara, Dogachi, Majdiya-Panchshila (Nabadwip block), Bethuadahari-I, Bethuadahari-II under Krishnagar Sadar sub-division.

In Tehatta subdivision, the names of gram-panchayats are Karimpur-I, Karimpur-II, Betai-I, Chitka, Kanainagar, Natna, Tehatta and Palashipara where lockdown will be enforced.

In Kalyani sub-division, lockdown has been declared in Tatla, Kanchrapara and Saguna gram-panchayat.

In Ranaghat sub-division, Nokari gram-panchayat has been taken under purview of lockdown.

During the lockdown period, no business activities would be allowed in these above mentioned areas. All government and non-government offices (except the offices providing essential services, health services and involved in covid management, treasury, banking, MDM, ICDS distribution, PDS distribution, law and order, disaster management, electricity, fire and emergency, courts and correctional homes) would remain closed.

Courtesy: Images from iNET

A 7-day lockdown will come into force from 7 August midnight in Nadia to contain increasing rate of Covid-19 infection

A 7-day lockdown will come into force from 7 August midnight in Nadia to contain increasing rate of Covid-19 infection

The Nadia district magistrate, Vibhu Goel has issued an order (1380/Health, dated 5/8/2020) mentioning, “Comprehensive lockdown is being declared in the areas which are declared as  extended containment zone) with effect from 7 August, 2020, Friday, midnight 11.59 pm to 14th August, 2020, Friday, midnight 11.59 pm.

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News      

KRISHNAGAR, 5 AUG: Nadia is all set to go under full-fledged lockdown for seven days in hopes to contain the increasing rate of infection of Covid-19.

The Nadia district magistrate, Vibhu Goel has issued an order (1380/Health, dated 5/8/2020) mentioning, “Comprehensive lockdown is being declared in the areas which are declared as  extended containment zone) with effect from 7 August, 2020, Friday, midnight 11.59 pm to 14th August, 2020, Friday, midnight 11.59 pm.

The municipalities, which have been taken under purview of lockdown, are Krishnagar, Chakdaha, Gayeshpur, Haringhata, Kalyani, Ranaghat, Shantipur and Coopers Camp Notified Area.

This apart, the lockdown is being declared in the gram-panchayat areas such as Brittihuda, Chapra-I, Chapra-II, Mahatpur, Debagram, Mira-I, Bhanderkhola, Bhatjangla, Deypara, Dogachi, Majdiya-Panchshila (Nabadwip block), Bethuadahari-I, Bethuadahari-II under Krishnagar Sadar sub-division.

In Tehatta subdivision, the names of gram-panchayats are Karimpur-I, Karimpur-II, Betai-I, Chitka, Kanainagar, Natna, Tehatta and Palashipara where lockdown will be enforced.

In Kalyani sub-division, lockdown has been declared in Tatla, Kanchrapara and Saguna gram-panchayat.

In Ranaghat sub-division, Nokari gram-panchayat has been taken under purview of lockdown.

During the lockdown period, no business activities would be allowed in these above mentioned areas. All government and non-government offices (except the offices providing essential services, health services and involved in covid management, treasury, banking, MDM, ICDS distribution, PDS distribution, law and order, disaster management, electricity, fire and emergency, courts and correctional homes) would remain closed.

All market complexes and shops, roadside dhabas, tea stalls and eateries will remain closed. All public and private transport for carrying people will not be allowed to run.

In the order, it has been advised to all the residents to store the essential items for seven days of lockdown beforehand.

The decision to enforce lockdown for seven days has been necessitated after reviewing the situation of corona infection in the district.

Barely a three days ago, the Trinamul Congress MP from Krishnagar, Mahua Moitra had published a video message through a social media where she warned the people that if they do not maintain social distances and do not wear masks, the government will be forced to clamp a lockdown for two weeks.   

Meanwhile, the district has recorded the highest single-day spike of 57 Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours. Among the positive cases, eight persons living under Krishnagar municipality tested Covid positive while seven persons living in the areas under Krishnagar-I block tested Covid-19 positive. Till today, the district has recorded 999 cumulative positive cases.  

Courtesy: Images from iNET.

ISKCON, Mayapur will celebrate the foundation laying ceremony of the historic Ram Temple in Ayodhya

ISKCON, Mayapur will celebrate the foundation laying ceremony of the historic Ram Temple in Ayodhya

Temples across the US will perform special poojas and prayers, while a large number of Indian-Americans have said that they would lit diya to celebrate the bhoomi poojan of the Ram Temple.

              

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

KRISHNAGAR, 4 AUG: The International Society for Krishna Consciousnes (ISKCON), Mayapur will celebrate the foundation laying ceremony of the historic Ram Temple in Ayodhya tomorrow.

“The bhoomi pujan and laying foundation stone of a grand Sri Ram Mandir on 5th August at Ayodhya is a historic and proud moment for all the followers of Sanatan Dharma across the world. The much awaited construction of the Sri Ram temple is hailed by millions of ISKCON devotees all over the globe and we at the headquarters of the institution in Mayapur plan to celebrate the day by offering lamps before the deities and organising Harinam Sankirtan in the Chandrodaya temple campus throughout the day”, said Subroto Das, head media communications, Iskcon, Mayapur.

His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, founder Acharya of International Society for Krishna Consciousness, as an ambassador of the Sanatan Dharma in the western world acquainted  masses the glories of Maryada Purshottam Sri Ram Chandra in  America, European nations to name a few, Das said.

Earlier on Saturday, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust had issued an appeal to all saints across the country to perform puja in their respective temples and Maths from 11.30 am to 12.30 pm on August 5.

Champat Rai, general secretary of the Trust, requested people to watch the live telecast of Bhoomi Pujan on television and light earthen lamps at home in the evening.

A similar call was issued by the VHP to saints and seers associated with the front. It said the Bhoomi Poojan day must be celebrated keeping in mind the guidelines issued by state administrations to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

“We will follow the same rules in Bengal. People have been asked to stay at home and watch the ceremony on television. They will sing devotional songs and offer prayers at home,” said Sourish Mukherjee, head of the VHP’s media cell in Bengal.

Nabendu Kumar Bandopadhyay, a state leader of the Hindu Jagran Manch, said, “Our organisation too will celebrate the day through prayers at homes and temples. There will be no public gathering.”

Meanwhile, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has collected soil from famous temples and places of pilgrimage spread across West Bengal as well as water from several rivers for the bhoomi pujan to be performed at the site of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone.

VHP workers have collected soil from a large number of sites such as the Madan Mohan temple at Cooch Behar district in north Bengal, the temple of Kapil Muni at Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal, Dakshineswar temple near Kolkata where Ramkrishna Paramhans was a priest and Kalighat temple located near chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence.

Similarly, water was collected from the confluence of Saraswati, Kunti and Hooghly rivers at Triveni in Hooghly district, the Bhagirathi river near the Iskcon temple at Mayapur and several other places.

 Indian-Americans to celebrate Ram Temple foundation laying ceremony

Temples across the US have announced special events to celebrate the foundation laying ceremony of the historic Ram Temple in Ayodhya, with a tableau truck displaying digital images of the Ram Temple going around the US Capitol Hill on Tuesday, according to Hindu community leaders.

Temples across the US will perform special poojas and prayers, while a large number of Indian-Americans have said that they would lit diya to celebrate the bhoomi poojan of the Ram Temple.

Indian-Americans from in and around Washington DC said that a tableau truck with a big LED display on Sri Ram Mandir will go around the Capitol Hill and the White house on Tuesday night. “Ayodhya Sri Ram Mandir Tableau will go around the US Capitol Hill marking the beginning of the historic Temple construction at the holiest site for billion strong Hindus around the World,” a statement issued by the community leaders said.

The Hindu Mandir Executives’ Conference and Hindu Mandir Priests’ Conference have also called for a virtual collective national prayer across America to rejoice the upcoming Shree Ram Mandir Poojan at Ayodhya.

Similarly in the city of New York as well, Hindu community leaders have decided to celebrate the historic occasion.

Images of Lord Ram and 3D portraits of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya will be beamed across the giant billboards in the iconic Times Square on 5 August.

Courtesy: Images from iNET.