OUR BUREAU
Road-hog pandals that have not left at least 4 feet space on all four sides will have to be demolished, the high court has ruled.
With nine days to go for Puja, Justice Sanjib Banerjee on Tuesday put a seal of approval on a set of guidelines submitted by various government agencies, including a clause on leaving 4 feet open around pandals.
Advocate-general Balai Ray suggested that the guidelines be enforced from next year. But Justice Banerjee rejected the plea, ordering police to demolish pandals found to be violating the rules “from the current year”.
“The city police are directed to keep a strict vigil on pandals to ensure that the guidelines are followed by each of them. If any puja committee is found guilty of violating the norms, the police will have to demolish the entire pandal,” Justice Banerjee ruled.
The fresh guidelines were listed in a report prepared by police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti and tabled in the court by the advocate-general.
The rules also state that pandals, erected on roads or in enclosed spaces such as parks, cannot be more than 40 feet high. There should be separate gates for entry and exit — each at least 14 feet high and 12 feet wide to ensure smooth passage of fire tenders.
The “superstructure” of a pandal must be made of “tubular steel frame” and “saal wood properly nailed and fastened with metal wire”. The side walls and the roof will have to be made of corrugated/aluminium sheets.
Pandals should not come up beneath “live electrical lines” or adjacent to electrical transformers or feeder boxes. Cooking will not be allowed within 200 yards of the pandals, which cannot be made of inflammable articles such as sugarcane pulp, coconut and jute fibres and bidi leaves.
The police chief refused to comment when asked about the court order but one of his senior officers said on condition of anonymity that the ruling would render a large number of pandals illegal. “With three days left for Mahalaya, there is no way errant organisers can amend their pandal plans in compliance with the directive. Demolition, on the other hand, can lead to a serious law and order problem,” the officer said.
Sources said the police would ensure that at least the traffic-stopper pandals left 4 feet open on all four sides.
Advocate-general Ray said: “The government will implement the court order and ask its agencies to take appropriate steps against the pandals violating norms.”
If the government is in a spot over the high court order just a few days before Puja, it has only itself to blame.
Metro, while carrying out a campaign against road-hog pandals, has highlighted the callousness of all government agencies, including the police and fire department, in granting puja permissions.
Most organisers start work on pandals, including the traffic-stopper ones, long before the approval comes, with the authorities turning a blind eye. “The police and the fire department act as mere rubber stamps, issuing the no-objection certificate a few days before the festival, citing public sentiment,” said an official.
Justice Banerjee, acting on a petition by Kasba resident Ishita Chakraborty, had asked the government on September 10 to come up with fresh Puja guidelines after talking to “all agencies concerned”, such as the police, fire department, and the civic body.
Chakraborty had alleged that a pandal set up by RK Chatterjee Road Adhibasi Brinda had violated rules and blocked the windows of her house. The court ordered the organisers to leave 4 feet open.
On Tuesday, the judge disposed of Chakraborty’s petition and directed the police to provide her security.
I fully appreciate the Telegraph's effort to reign in the Puja committees who have no civic sense and disrupt traffic by blocking roads.
I would suggest people from all over Kolkata should send photographs to the Telegraph informing them of such road blockade.
The police than should send them notice, penalising them and not allowing them to hold any for Pujas in coming years at those sites.
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