Chhath Puja observed, devotees in city stay away from Lake

kolkata: The barricading of entry gates with bamboo and tin shades coupled with deployment of police ensured that Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar remained out of bounds for Chaath Puja revelers.

Thousands of devotees offered Puja to the Sun God at the 20 ghats along the Hooghly river and at 150 waterbodies that were prepared by the state administration for Chaath rituals, as alternatives to Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar. Some of these are permanent ones while the rest are temporary.

Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the custodian of the two waterbodies, had closed the gates from 7 pm on Saturday till 4 pm on Monday and a reasonable police force was deployed .

"Hardly any devotee turned up at the two lakes for observing Chhath Puja which shows that people have become conscious about environmental issues," a senior KMDA official said. KMDA teams visited several ghats in the city on Sunday evening and Monday morning and supervised the observance of Chaath rituals. A number of devotees arrived at the ghats to the accompaniment of loud music.

Environmentalists, however, alleged bursting of firecrackers since the afternoon of Sunday in areas such as Tollygunje, Naktala, Patuli, Bhawanipore, Chetla, Beleghata, Cossipore and Narkeldanga areas of the city. An official of West Bengal Pollution Control Board said that air quality across the city remained at 'satisfactory' level and no major case of sound violation has been received in the control room. In Asansol, Trinamool Congress MP Shatrughan Sinha participated in the celebrations.