Kolkata: The fresh spurt in the number of Covid-19 positive cases during the four days of Durga Puja last month does not seem to have brought people back to their senses.
On Thursday, on the occasion of Kali Puja, crowds poured in at the major Kali temples in the city and adjoining suburbs, aggravating the fear of another round of super spreader at the end of this festive season. However, there is a difference between the crowd gathering during the Durga Puja days and that on Thursday.
During the Durga Puja days, the gathering was mainly in front of the community Puja Pandals, especially the most hyped ones. However, on the Kali Puja days, those gatherings in front of the community Pujas were not witnessed.
The main gatherings were witnessed at the important temples in the city and adjacent suburbs like Kalighat temple, Dakhineswar temple, Firingi Kali Temple, Tanthania Kali temple and Lake Kali temple among others. While maintaining social distance was nowhere witnessed within these temple complexes, in many cases, people freely moved around sporting masks.
While initiative on part of the police was witnessed in enforcing the wearing of masks on the streets especially around the community Pujas, they appeared helpless in enforcing the same mask-rule within the temple complexes.
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“Strict enforcement within the temple complexes might trigger tension there, which is not at all desirable on such an auspicious day. So our men deputed in and around the temples were requesting the people to use masks and maintain social distancing as far as possible. At places even the police personnel were distributing masks,” said an officer of Kolkata Police on condition of anonymity.
Till Thursday evening, a total of 475 people within the Kolkata Police jurisdiction were booked for not using face masks. A total of 11 people were booked for spitting in public places. The total number of arrests till that time was 32. The Kolkata Police deputed members Winners’ Team, an all-woman motorcycle-borne special police team at important places in the city on Thursday to prevent incidences of ever- teasing.
