KOLKATA:
Covid-19 is set to cast its shadow on
Durga Puja 2020, with the
Calcutta High Court on Monday directing the
state government to treat all
pandals as “no-entry zones”.
No one, except those on a list prepared by the organizers, will be allowed to go within 10 metres of a “big” puja pandal; and that list cannot have more than 25-30 names. For “small” pujas, the no-entry zone will be five metres from the pandal; and the list of people allowed to go nearer cannot have more than 15 names. The court also said whether a pandal was “big” or “small” would be determined by the
local police.
Bengal CM
Mamata Banerjee, who attended a programme organised for the elderly at a Chetla home on Monday, did not refer to the court’s order but urged everyone to see pujas “virtually” this year. “We will stay indoors and watch puja virtually because of the pandemic,” she said.
Inside the courtroom, Bengal advocate-general Kishore Dutta told the division bench of Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Arijit Banerjee that making pandals “no-entry zones” may not be effective as there would be crowds beyond them anyway. The bench accepted this might be true but added: “If pandals are made no-entry zones and a certain distance (to the pandals) is made part of those zones, people will know that there will not be any access within or close to pandals and the affinity to take to the streets may be less.”
The court also urged people to take a virtual tour of pandals and declined to entertain a government plea for a “stay of operation” of the order. “It is a matter of concern that the state government finds the directions onerous,” the order said.
The apprehension that overcrowding could lead to an uncontrollable rise in the number of Covid cases was “real and immediate”, it added. The court also felt it was “rather incongruous” that festivities could continue as usual when school-goers and college students could not attend classes on campus for more than six months. Life, it said, had not been normal for humans since March.
State home secretary H K Dwivedi met advocate-general Dutta after the order but it was not clear whether the government would challenge it in the Supreme Court. The Forum for Durgotsav, a platform of Kolkata’s Durga Puja organisers, said it was consulting lawyers. “We may move a Calcutta High Court division bench for relief. There are problems in implementing the order at the eleventh hour. We will arrive at a decision by Tuesday morning,” forum secretary and Hatibagan Sarbajanin Durgotsav general secretary Saswata Ghosh said.
The HC said the guidelines issued by police were “exemplary” but faulted the government for failing to provide a blueprint for their implementation. “This order must not be seen as (a comment on) the inadequacy of measures but as a supplement to ensure the proper implementation of those measures by the limited (number of) police personnel, volunteers and other administrative officials and workers,” the court said.
“The measures announced by the state government are well-intentioned but may remain only a pious wish on paper without any blueprint being chalked out for their implementation on the ground,” the bench felt. “The police cannot be blamed with the limited resources at its disposal,” it added.
The HC made it clear that only puja organisers’ and priests’ names could be on the list of people allowed entry into pandals; the list could not changed, the court said, adding that it had to be displayed properly for checks.
The court asked Kolkata Police commissioner Anuj Sharma and state director-general of police Virendra to file their reports on the order’s compliance by November 5.
Howrah resident Ajay Kumar Dey had filed the PIL, apprehending that large-scale Durga Puja celebrations this year might lead to a “Covid tsunami” in the state. The court said: “The virus refuses to go away. The state government can only do so much with the limited resources available though healthcare facilities have been augmented. In such a situation, it may be judicious to err on the side of prevention than allow festivities to go on without any check and then repent later.”