By Banibrata Datta
Matabari/India: With the entire nation celebrating Diwali with huge fervor, Tripura was struggling with heavy rainfall and heavy winds as cyclone Si-Trang moved north-eastwards and lay 260 km southeast of Sagar Island on Monday.
Reviewing the situation on Tuesday, Matabari Diwali Mela Committee announced to extend the fair for one more day.
On the opening day of this year’s Diwali fair due to natural calamity, many visitors across the state had to face hardships in visiting Matarbar. This in turn left adverse effect on the sales of traders.
With the advice of Tripura Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha the time limit for the fair in Matarbari has been extended till October 26 till 6pm in the evening.
Besides, the traders were requested to vacate the fair premises by 7 am the next day.
The biggest celebrations of all times in Tripura Sundari Temple, Matabari, Udaipur in Gomati district of the state was hit hard because of the Sitrang impact.
This is one of the fifty-one Hindu pithas of India which is recognized as a holy and sacred place in Tripura. Devotees from both tribals and non-tribals observe this festival with great enthusiasm and take bath in the lake of the temple paying their homage to goddess “Kali”. A grand fair is also organized during this festival for two days at the festive month October/ November.
Strom and heavy rain ruined the hope of small scale businessmen in Udaipur Matabari who were expecting profits centering the 2-day long fair that started on Monday, October 24.
Bulks of Prasad, “Peda” prepared for bhog in Tripureshwari temple got wasted as devotees were extremely less compared to other years.
Same suffering was shared by the sellers who opened stalls of various kinds for “Dipabali” fair in Mtabari premises.
A shopkeeper who came to Udaipur from Agartala said, “My shop is almost damaged because of rainwater. I purchased stock of almost Rs 50,000 but could not do any business”.
