Chhath Puja: KMDA mulling to increase the no. of permanent ghats next year

KOLKATA: KMDA is planning to increase the number of permanent ghats next year and gradually create infrastructure for more such ghats so that temporary ghats can be done away with for performing Chhath Puja rituals.

Meanwhile, devotees in the city observed Chhath Puja maintaining all Covid protocols. Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) in coordination with Kolkata Police was fully successful in implementing the order of National Green Tribunal by preventing observance of the Puja rituals at Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar for the second consecutive day on Thursday.

"We had made arrangements in 7 permanent ghats and 32 temporary ghats in the city for performing Chhath Puja and had reached out to the devotees through massive awareness citing reasons why Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarovar have been kept out of bounds. The people have extended full support and for this reason we have been able to strictly implement the guidelines of Green Tribunal as well as the Supreme Court regarding observance of the Puja," Chandrima Bhattacharjee, state Urban Development minister, who also happens to be the chairman of KMDA, said,

Senior officials from KMDA visited the Rabindra Sarobar on Thursday morning and found a strong police vigil and deployment to thwart any attempt to enter the sprawling water body for observing the Puja rituals.

The devotees, who had used the respective ghats on Wednesday evening, observed Puja in the same ghats on early Thursday morning. "Our contractors started cleaning of the ghats of the water bodies immediately after observance of rituals that ended by 6.30 am this morning to ensure

that they do not continue to remain dirty," a senior KMDA official said.