The spirit of celebrations has all but been snuffed out from people's mind most of whom have no time or wherewithal to go for celebrations and puja marketing.

This year's puja sale would not exceed the ten per cent figure against last year's which was around Rs 5 crore, Malda Bastra Byabasayee Samiti president R Basak said here today.

``How can you expect them to buy puja stuff and rejoice when many of them have had to shift their families to other places, travel by boats and live in hotels. Puja shopping is the last thing in the villagers' minds who have lost all their belongings in this year's flood,'' Basak said.

Basak's views were echoed by organisers of big budget pujas who would celebrate this year's pujas sans the pomp and splendour. Representatives of Shantibharati Parishad, Sarbajoyee Club, United Youngs, Jhankar said they were not collectingmoney from locals. ``We would just install the idols in the pandal and perform the rituals,'' they said. They would also donate a part of the budget for flood relief, the puja committees said.