WB-CHHATH-SAROBAR

Devotees flout NGT order, enter Rabindra Sarobar for 2nd day
    Kolkata, Nov 3 (PTI) For the second time in 12 hours,
several thousand devotees forced themselves into the Rabindra
Sarobar in south Kolkata on early Sunday to perform Chhat Puja
rituals, flouting directives of the National Green Tribunal,
an official of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority
(KMDA) said.
    A case has been filed against unnamed persons
at Lake Police Station and the KMDA will send a detailed
report to the West Bengal government, he said.
    In a rerun of Saturday developments, the devotees
broke open the locks of the gates leading to the lake and
trooped into the waterbody from 4 AM to 7 AM to pay obeisance
to the rising sun at the National Lake, the official said.
    "Our security guards were outnumbered. With not
much police personnel around, the guards had to allow the
devotees to get in. They offered pujas and our conservancy
staff has started clearing flowers, leaves and other
left-over from the water and the ecologically sensitive zone.
It will be over in two-three days," the official said.
    The NGT, in a directive to the West Bengal government
on October 14, had asked it to ensure that there is no
violation of an earlier tribunal order, which banned any kind
of ritual for Chhath Puja or other festivals in the waters of
the Rabindra Sarobar.
    No fairs, open air festivals with bright light and
sound take place in the lake area since 2017, the official
said.
    Spread over 192 acres, Rabindra Sarobar boasts of rich
biodiversity.
    Asked about Chhat Puja revellers flouting the NGT
order at Rabindra Sarobar lake, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said
at the sidelines of an event here, the order has to be
implemented and complied with.
    Enviornmentalist Subhas Dutta said, he has got at
least 100 picures of people moving inside the lake premises on
Saturday and Sunday, offering puja at the waterbody despite
the area being declared a prohibited zone for such
festivities.
"I feel sad. It will take lots of time to undo the
damage caused to ecology and bio-diversity in the lake area.
But I am hopeful, we will win the battle to save the
environment at Rabindra Sarobar one day," Dutta said.
    Another environmentalist Somendra Nath Ghosh said,
materials used in puja like vermilion and oil, besides fruits
were strewn all over the place.
    "While the KMDA stopped entry of morning walkers since
Friday midnight, they did little to prevent thousands of Chhat
revellers from entering the premises. Some of them danced to
the tunes of DJ music, drums and even burst fire crackers and
threw chocolate bombs on water," Ghosh said.
    Thespian Soumitra Chatterjee said, there should be
awareness among those violating a court order in the name of
festivities.
    The administration must have taken full-proof measures
to prevent such an incident, Chatterjee said.
    Around 100 police personnel were deployed outside the
gates of Rabindra Sarobar since Saturday afternoon, the KMDA
official said.
    The KMDA had earlier declared all the 15 gates of
the Rabindra Sarobar would be locked on November 2 midnight
and till 11 am the following day and there would be 15
waterbodies, natural and artificial, kept ready for Chhat
revellers.
    "Hundreds turned up in alternative places like the
waterbody in Patuli, Panditia Road and Anandapur on Saturday
afternoon and early Sunday but none turned up in other
earmarked places," the official said.
    Sabita Rani, a woman offering Chhat puja at the lake,
asked, "Why should we go elsewhere? Shall we stop offering
Chhat Puja?
    "We are not ready to go to any alternative location,"
she said.
    A large number of devotees had poured in on the green
zone on Saturday by breaking open locks of the gates leading
to the lake to perform Chhath Puja rituals. PTI SUS
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)