Kolkata:
The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the West Bengal government to file on January 13 are port on the arrangements made for organising the Gangasagar Mela, based on which it will decide whether or not to allow the annual fair this year in the view of the pandemic situation.
As per the calendar, the timings of the holy dip this year will be for 24 hours from 6.02 am on January 14.
Directing that the matter will be heard again on January 13, a division bench presided by Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan ordered that the state government through the chief secretary will file the report in the form of an affidavit regarding all arrangements made till then.
”This will enable the court to assess the situation as on that date and decide whether or not the Gangasagar Mela should be permitted to be held this year keeping in mind the pandemic situation and the paramount interest of public heal that large,” the bench, also comprising Justice Arijit Banerjee,directed.
In a report placed before the court on Friday, the state government’s Director of Health Services delineated the arrangements for the fair.
The division bench observed that the pilgrims should opt for e-snan (e-bathing) and e-darshan arrangements being made by the state government to avoid crowding for holy dips at the confluence of River Ganga and the Bay of Bengal, andalso at the Kapil Muni Temple and the fairground in view of the COVID-19 situation.
The report said that medical screening camps having thermal checking facilities have been set up at all major entry points including Howrah and Sealdah railway stations.
The state has also set up 13 rapid antigen testing centres, five RT-PCR testing facilities, eight safe homes with 615 beds, 11 quarantine centres with 645 beds, five Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) isolation centres with 116beds, seven COVID hospitals with 600 beds and six wellness centres having 203 beds.
More than 2,500 health officials and health workers will be deployed for handling the situation, the report said,adding that 100 ambulances, three water and two air ambulances and green corridor arrangements for emergency evacuation have been made for a speedy response.
The DHS in his affidavit said that it will be ensured that all pilgrims and other people at the fairground and adjoining areas mandatorily wear face masks, maintain physical distancing and use sanitiser.
Sufficient amount and quantity of face masks and hand sanitizer will be made available for distribution among those without them, the report said.
Around 9,000 police personnel including three ADGs,IG, four DIGs, six SPs, 15 additional SPs, 90 DSPs, 116 inspectors, 822 subordinate officers, nearly 2,700 constables,3,000 civic volunteers and 2,500 temporary home guards are being deployed in and around Gangasagar, it said.
The bench said that while it is primarily satisfied with the administrative arrangement and the policing arrangements for crowd management and for the dissemination of information as to the protective steps to be taken by the visiting pilgrims in the wake of the COVID pandemic, it has apprehension about the modality in which the measures stated in the report of the DHS could be effectively achieved.
In view of such apprehensions, the bench directed the state’s chief secretary to file a further report on January 13 regarding the arrangements made till then.
The bench directed that the protective and precautionary measures referred to in the report should also be implemented at all places in and around Kolkata and anywhere else in West Bengal where people are congregating enroute to Gangasagar.
Directing that whatever has been stated in the report should be scrupulously adhered to, the division bench said,”We record the statements made in such report as an undertaking given to the court by the state government.
Needless to say, such an undertaking would bind all wings of the state government including the police.”
