In Kolkata, a few Puja committees respond to desperate appeals by doctors

As the fear in COVID-19 cases due to Durga Puja celebrations grips Kolkata harder, at least three crowd-pulling neighborhoods have announced that outsiders won’t be allowed into their pandals this year.

Since neighborhoods try to outdo each other in terms of decoration and themes, pandal-hopping is an integral part of the festivities that last five days, involving the movement of hundreds of thousands of people.

At the time of the pandemic, pandal-hopping can be highly dangerous for a city like Kolkata, where people are already out shopping for Puja in large numbers.

The indifference on the part of the State government and the public alike is making doctors repeatedly appeal to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to ensure restraint.

Under the umbrella of the Joint Platform of Doctors, they once again issued a statement on Friday saying that since they had not received any response from either the Chief Minister or the Chief Secretary to their pleas, they were once again urging all political parties and puja committees to advocate restraint.

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News Source: The Hindu

Updated by Bidisha Roy Choudhury