Cops deployed at the closed Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal
The original committee was replaced by a new team that placed BJP Jorasanko MLA Bijoy Ojha as chairman, north Kolkata district president Tamaghna Ghosh as chief adviser and Debdeep Adhikari, the chief minister’s kin, as chief patron. seven people, including puja committee secretary Rajkumar Sewda, vice-president Shantanu Dubey, Biplab Mukhopadhyay, who was responsible for installing the bamboo structure, and Kaushik Saha and Pintu De, who were in charge of crowd management. On Thursday, committee treasurer Sanjeev Raha was arrested.
A letter dated July 17, purportedly signed by former general secretary Jayanta Banerjee, stated that he was relinquishing his responsibilities and that members of the executive committee were also being relieved of theirs. I am part of many of the 105 Durga Pujas held here.
Former committee members said the change was accompanied by pressure on the outgoing team to resign. Ojha said, “My role as chairperson is largely ornamental. Many former committee members were also told to post on social media that they were no longer associated with the puja,” said a BJP functionary in the area. Former members of the Chorebagan Sarbajanin Durgotsav Samity said the approach to the pandal was particularly difficult to manage because of the narrow stretch, which they likened to a “chicken’s neck”. “Over the years, we had developed a system of deploying volunteers with ropes at several points along Amar Basu Sarani to regulate visitors’ movement and prevent a rush,” a former committee member said, requesting anonymity.
The terms of reference of the SIT probe bring into its ambit the roles also played by the organisers. It states: “To ascertain whether any lapse, negligence, dereliction of duty or failure of coordination is attributable to the organisers, police authorities, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, public works department, fire and emergency services, CESC Limited or any other agency or individual, and to recommend appropriate action in accordance with law wherever warranted. Chorbagan’s management changed hands in July. The actual role is played by the local organisers. Even here (in Chorbagan), the committee may have changed, but locals were there. It is not that outsiders were organising the puja. Many committees have changed hands. The incident took place only in one. But I cannot comment more since this is under probe. “It was almost a hostile takeover with the members of the former committee given a deadline to resign.