Jamshedpur mutes Durga Puja for Ratan Tata

Over 300 community Durga Puja committees in Jamshedpur refrained from playing music and cancelled cultural programmes on Thursday, 10 October, as a mark of respect to the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Naval Tata, who died in a Mumbai hospital a day ago.

A senior functionary of the Central Durga Puja Committee of the city said some of the organisers have also put up Tata's photograph beside the marquees.

"We have appealed to all the community puja committees to observe the festival in a simple manner and urged them not to play any music, barring mandatory instruments like 'dhak' (drum) etc, to pay respect to Ratan Tata," the general secretary of the Central Puja Committee, Ashutosh Kumar Singh, told PTI.

Altogether 332 community puja committees affiliated to the Central Committee unanimously agreed to the call and stopped playing music, except those related to the puja. Some of them even cancelled all cultural programmes scheduled for the day, Singh said.

Tata, who died at the age of 86 years, had immense contribution to the development of the city as well as its industries, trade and businesses, Singh added.

Meanwhile, Jamshedpur Football Club also paid tribute to Tata before the players resumed practice after a four-day break.

The team observed a moment of silence in memory of Tata, whose legacy has greatly influenced the club and the community, the club said in a statement.