Rabindra Sarobar
The activist, whose PIL filed in Calcutta High Court in 2012 ultimately led to National Green Tribunal ’s 2017 ruling banning Chhath Puja at the lake, said the earlier Trinamool Congress govt had challenged the NGT order in the apex court and lost. Then the pandemic happened in 2020 and provided an opportunity to implement the order that had the apex court and the high court sanction. Any attempt to defy the order will amount to contempt of court,” he said, adding that the gains made over the past six years, during which the health and biodiversity of Rabindra Sarobar had improved, would be lost if Chhath Puja was allowed.
“Once you allow something, it will open the floodgates to other activities,” he said. Now that the votebank has shifted to the BJP, the govt wants to demonstrate its appreciation by allowing Chhath,” said Sumita Banerjee, a green activist and regular visitor to the lake who was one of the petitioners who challenged the TMC govt’s failure to enforce the NGT order. “That case has not been disposed of yet. “The TMC govt did not want to act, fearing it would affect its votebank.
Once a precedent was set, it was followed till last year. Kolkata: Environmentalist Subhas Datta on Wednesday said he would file a contempt petition in Supreme Court if the state went ahead with plans to allow Chhath Puja at Rabindra Sarobar.
Responding to minister Agnimitra Paul’s query on where local residents would offer Chhath Puja if not at the lake, Banerjee asked where the puja had been offered over the past seven years. “The minister also commented that Trinamool did politics with Chhath Puja and stopped it from being celebrated at Rabindra Sarobar. That is factually incorrect. It did not wish to stop the puja till its hand was forced,” Banerjee added.