KOLKATA: With the authorities setting the Kali idol immersion deadline on November 18, KMC will have less than 48 hours to clean the major ghats along the Hooghly for Chhath rituals on November 20.
Civic parks department officials said they were engaging additional manpower for the clean-up drive at major ghats, such as Bajekadamtolla (Babughat), Judges ghat, Nimtolla ghat, Bagbazar ghat and Takta ghat (Kidderpore), where a large number of Chhath devotees converge on for the rituals. Given the brief window, leaves of senior aofficials of the KMC parks department have been cancelled.
While a majority of people from central Kolkata gather at Bajekadamtolla and Judges ghat, those from north Kolkata go to Nimtolla and Bagbazar ghats. “As the state has fixed November 18 as the last date for immersion of Kali idols, we will have practically less than 48 hours to keep the major ghats ready for Chhath devotees by Friday morning (November 20).
It will be a challenging task and we will have to engage skilled labourers to wrap up the operation on time,” a KMC parks department official said. He added that senior officials and supervising officers of the parks department would have to forgo their leaves to get the work done. “We have entrusted our senior officials with the supervision of the cleaning operations at major immersion ghats along the Hooghly during and after Kali Puja and Chhath,” said Debasis Kumar, a member of the KMC board of administrators (BoA), who looks after the parks and square department.
KMC will also engage civic volunteers and take help of cops to ensure social distancing is maintained. “It will be a challenging task for us to make Chhath devotees fall in line and follow social distancing norms at the ghats,” said a senior parks and square department official.
The civic authorities and KMDA have decided to discourage Chhath devotees from south Kolkata and fringe to gather at Hooghly ghats. Accordingly, the two bodies have been sprucing up big ponds and water bodies that are mostly located along the EM Bypass, Jadavpur, Garia, Tollygunge and Behala for the rituals. These ponds and water bodies are being readied as alternative venues to Rabindra Sarobar in south. “This year, we have found more ponds and water bodies compared to last year to enable thousands of Chhath devotees perform their religious and rites there without hindrance,” said a KMC official.
Accordingly, a couple of large water bodies at Anandapur and some along E M Bypass are getting spruced up . Similarly, large ponds, like Ranidighi (Tollygunge), Layelka (Baghajatin) and the one at Patuli, are also being readied to accommodate devotees on November 20.