Most of the Pujas have cut down on their entertainment budgets by at least 30 percent, but the core festivities and rituals have not been touched, Samir Banerjee, secretary of G-K-II Puja Samiti, told IANS.

'Star performers from Kolkata and Mumbai, who charged Rs.100,000 and more are charging nearly 25 percent less. Most of the pujas have roped in local performers,' he said.

Banerjee said all the four major Durga Pujas in Chittaranjan Park - the Mela Ground Puja, B Block, K Block and the Shiv Mandir - have reduced their expenditure.

'The downturn has forced us to change the nature of entertainment programmes so that we can connect to the masses and yet keep the purse smaller,' Shuvendu Mazumdar, one of the organising honchos of the Shipra Sun City Puja, told IANS.

As most of the national capital region (NCR) pujas are funded by corporate bodies, Shipra Sun City near Indirapuram in the east of the national capital region and its adjacent technology and private residential complexes had to knock more doors for money, Amitabh Mazumdar, CEO of Allied Healthsciences, a member of the Shipra Sun City Puja Committee, told IANS.

Shipra Sun City has one of the largest cluster of 600 Bengali families.

However, the historic Kashmere Gate Puja has increased its outlay. 'We raise funds by personal donation. People who donated Rs.10,000 last year gave us Rs.15,000. This is our centenary year,' Dipayan Mazumdar said.

The Kashmere Gate Puja has taken several novel initiatives to spread the centenary message. On Sunday morning, it organised 'Prabhat Pheri' or morning procession in CR Park, to let people know.

'Our Puja is green. We will donate the used flowers to an NGO to make perfumes. The idols are being made of eco-friendly 'Khodi' or chalk clay and vegetable dyes that will dissolve in water,' Mazumdar said.

Durga Puja was first celebrated in Delhi in 1910 by ritually consecrating the 'mangal ghat', the symbol of the 'devi'. The idol puja started in 1912 and the first idol was purchased from Kashi.