Correctional homes to observe Puja maintaining all Covid norms
Kolkata: The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a significant change in Durga Pujas in correctional homes across the state with idols being procured from outside and restrictions imposed among inmates who had returned to the prisons after serving parole in taking part in the Durga Puja celebrations.
Inmate Chandan Chanda has been making the idol of Devi Durga and her entourage for both Alipore and Dum Dum Central Correctional Home till 2018 for a period of at least five years at a stretch. Last year he made the idol of Midnapore Open Correctional Home after being shifted there.
"This year we have deliberately avoided involving the inmates in idol making to maintain physical distancing and in all the correctional homes where the pujas are being held idols are being procured from outside," said an official of the state Correctional Administration department.
Chandan, a resident of West Midnapore district, who was convicted in a murder case, has been in prison for more than a decade .
During the Covid period the department had released 12,000 out of 26,500 inmates of different correctional homes in the state either on parole or on bail after approval of Calcutta High Court with the intention to decongest the prisons for observing physical distancing protocols. The parole period have now been exhausted and since September, the inmates have gradually started returning to the respective correctional homes in batches. "We are ensuring 14 days isolation and medical supervision for the inmates returning after ending their parole or bail term. So those whose isolation period will come in between the puja days will not be allowed to take part in the puja," the official added.
There will be special menu on all the four days of the Durga Puja which has been the practice for many years. "We will ensure that there is no gathering in the kitchen at the time of cooking or in the space of worship," said a senior official of Dum Dum Central Correctional Home. "We have prepared a model Standard Operating Procedure for the correctional homes regarding Covid protocol and have sent it to all the 57 correctional homes that includes six central correctional homes," said Ujjal Biswas, minister for state Correctional Administration.
The superintendents of the prisons will accordingly make everybody wear mask, carry out sanitization time to time , ensure physical distancing and other measures for a safe puja.
