East-West Metro corridor: New utensils to be provided to victims for Chhath Puja

Kolkata: The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL) will provide new utensils for Chhath Puja to the residents of Madan Dutta Lane, whose houses had developed cracks due to the construction work of East-West Metro corridor, as demanded by them.

The residents, who belong to the Bihari community and celebrate the festive day by offering prayers to the Sun god, will be observing a strict fast without water on October 23. They had sought new utensils to conduct the Puja. They are currently lodged in three hotels of Central Kolkata.

General manager of KMRCL AK Nandy said they have agreed to the proposal of providing new utensils. Since the demand was made through the councillor's office, they have asked local councillor Biswarup Dey to provide them with the number of utensils required and will buy them accordingly.

On the first day of the Joint Assistance Camp conducted by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), KMRCL and Kolkata Police, quite a few families had raised their worries about the Chhath Puja celebrations this year. Few had asked permission for going somewhere else for the Puja and sought assurance that their place in the hotel will remain intact. Both Dey and the KMRCL representative had assured people of that.

"Chhath Puja has strict rules and we fast and then perform the rituals. How will it be possible to do the same in temporary hotels that we are currently lodged in," an affected resident Neelam Shah said.

On Friday morning, cracks had appeared in 10 buildings at Madan Dutta Lane of BB Ganguly Street, leaving around 180 people of 28 families in despair. The affected residents and businessmen were given a compensation application form from the councillor's office starting from Monday. These forms will be collected by Saturday and after verification, it will be passed on to the KMRCL officials, who will be giving out the compensation amount accordingly.