Kolkata: 400 top Durga Puja organisers in Kolkata asked the Calcutta High Court today to review its order declaring puja pandals "no-entry zones" for visitors because of the coronavirus outbreak. The High Court will hear the request tomorrow.
The organisers approached the court as part of the Durgotsav Forum, an umbrella body of Durga Puja organisers, with just two days to go for Bengal's biggest festival.
Yesterday, the High Court said only organisers would be allowed inside pandals; 25 for bigger Pujas and 15 for the smaller ones. The names of the organisers would have to be put up on a display board daily and could not be changed, the court said.
The court also asked organisers to put up barricades outside pandals -- five meters from the entrance for smaller celebrations and double that for the bigger ones.
The Durgotsav Forum had expressed shock at the order.
"This is a huge setback for us. For four months, we have been working at making things safe for visitors. We had made masks mandatory, sanitising gates were in place, we bought machines for thermal screening. Our exit gates were bigger than entry gates. But now... the rule about barricade 10 metres before the pandal, how will the crowds disperse? There will be more chaos," Saswat Bose, the chief of the forum, said on Monday.
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