Puja pandals open today

ven as Puja organisers gave final touches to pandals, which would be thrown open for public viewing from today, fear of the raingod playing spoilsport was playing on their minds. The weatherman, however, has predicted clear weather during this year's Dussehra festivities.

Terming the short spell of rain on Tuesday evening as a normal phenomenon of retreating monsoon, the local met officials have claimed that there is no possibility of heavy shower in coming days.

"There may be partly cloudy sky in next 48 hours, but heavy rains are not in store. The weather, in fact, is likely to clear completely in two days," said met director T N Jha.

Jha's assertion notwithstanding, organisers and puja revellers are keeping their fingers crossed. "If weather continues to be like this, the efforts made by organisers would prove futile as very few people would venture out braving the wet weather with the pandals scheduled to be thrown open for public viewing from Thursday," said one of the functionaries of a city puja committee.

Similar was the response from residents with many of them remaining indecisive in wake of the clouds hovering over the city sky. "It really hurts when weather poses a problem during the festive season. For now, we are not making any plans keeping the unpredictability of the weather in mind," said a Patnaite.