After 120 yrs, end of Visva Bharati’s Poush Mela

NEW DELHI: The curtains have come down over the century-old Poush Mela in Visva Bharati University. The 120-year-old fair and festival (Poush Mela) organised for three to four days in December annually had been disrupted only twice – in 1943 due to the famine and in 1945 due to the second world war.
But caught in a web of violations of the National Green Tribunal’s orders, fine imposed by West Bengal Pollution Control Board and police complaints over alleged harassment, the central university’s executive council (EC) on Friday decided to scrap the fair, which attracts over two lakh visitors.
The council also resolved to organise Basanta Utsav, the Tagore edition of Holi, on a different day, citing that if held on the same day as the festival of colours it would be tough to manage the crowd.
As per sources in EC, the university has been spending lakhs of rupees in multiple legal battles because of the mela. Also academically the university has been on a downslide, managing only B+ NAAC grading and slipped from 37th to 50th position in the 2020 NIRF rankings.
The university has written to the Union HRD ministry as well as apprised the prime minister’s office regarding the developments, such as a police investigation (a copy of which is with the TOI) against it after the administration tried to remove shops on completion of the fourth day of the mela “to honour the order of NGT.”
“The PM office has been informed by the university that a couple of days ago some officials were summoned by Santiniketan police for interrogation. This was related to December 2019 Poush Mela when the organisers tried to vacate the fairground after the scheduled four days. A section of local businessmen resisted which led to a scuffle. A complaint of outraging modesty was lodged against a number of university officials including the vice chancellor,” said the MHRD official.
The NGT had directed that the mela “shall be restricted only to the sale and exhibition of arts, crafts, traditional rural handicrafts, literature… It certainly would not dilute the object of the mela as it has been done in the recent past. The mela should be wound up without fail on the 4thday.” The tribunal following violations had also imposed Rs 25 lakh penalty on the university.
On January 7, 2020 the WBPCB also wrote to the university asking as to “why an environmental compensation amounting to Rs 10 lakh shall not be imposed,” over non-compliance of the NGT order.
The observations and orders of the NGT on the mela made in the last three years include violation of pollution laws relating to solid wastes and plastics, generation of hazardous plastics and that the essence of the mela has disappeared and it has now become purely a commercial event. Also the tribunal observed that the mela which is supposed to be run by the trust has been taken over by unscrupulous elements beyond the prescribed period of fiour days.
It would go on beyond 10-12 days without official electricity and would run on generators which cause air pollution thereby vitiating the atmosphere of the university.
According to a senior MHRD official, “Now even water purifiers, mobile phones and tractors are being sold in the fair.”
According to a government source, since the state administration has a hands off approach after the fourth day leaving the university on its own to deal with the situation including law and order, the EC felt that the university should reconsider permitting the mela within its campus.