Bengal Durga puja pandals no-entry zones for visitors: Calcutta HC

Kolkata : Durga puja pandals will be no-entry zones for visitors, the Calcutta High Court said, just three days ahead of Bengal's biggest festival. Only organisers will be allowed inside the pandals, the court said, limiting the number to 25 for big pandals and 15 for the smaller ones in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

The court said all pandals will have to erect barricades at their entrance -- the distance is five meters for small pandals and double that for the big ones.

Underscoring the need for compliance in view of public health, the High Court said there are not enough policemen in Kolkata to man crowds at the city's 3000-plus pandals.

Last month, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced plans to "put coronavirus in lockdown and hold the puja this year".

Without naming the opposition, she said: "We will surely organise the Durga puja this year. We have to avoid crowds at any cost because vultures are sitting out there to blame us if we don't allow the puja or if any spike occurs after the puja. They have no responsibility".

The coronavirus figures have been on the rise across the city as people, over the past weeks, started shopping for the pujas. Throwing caution to the winds, they gathered at the city's shopping areas big and small. Social distancing rules went out of the window as they queued and jostled to get inside the shops. Masks were rarely worn.

The wave of people on the streets triggered concern among health experts, who fear mass infection and a second wave of coronavirus in the state.

On Sunday, the COVID-19 deaths in Bengal went past the 6,000-mark, with 64 more fatalities.

The state also logged a record number of 3,983 fresh cases, which brought the total up to 3,21,036, showed data from the state health department.

In times of the pandemic, evil has attained a new face -- coronavirus. Hence, the Delhi Safdurjung Matri Mandir, an old puja committee in the national capital, has decided to install 'Coronasur' instead of Mahishasura in its toned down Durga Puja this year.

"Every year we create a Mahishasura which the goddess Durga symbolically kills. But this year, we have replaced it with Coronasur," Sumit Guha, one of the organisers at the Safdarjung Matri Mandir, told IANS.