The entire south of Kolkata was cut off from other parts of the city on Sunday evening due to traffic congestion and overcrowding. The city has hardly witnessed such chaos, even during the peak days of Durga Puja festival or even during political rallies. The reason was explained as “excessive crowd pressure owing to publicity” of one of the Pujas at Deshpriya Park in the heart of south Kolkata. It was frenziedly promoted by a cement company for the last several months as a Puja with the “biggest [Durga] idol” of the world and thus hundreds of thousands of puja hoppers took to streets on Sunday, a day before Sosthi, or what is considered to be the first day of the Durga Puja. Deshpriya park is located on the main arterial road of south Kolkata, the Rashbehari Avenue.
Kolkata police officials told The Hindu that the situation went out of control on Sunday evening. “We have decided to close this Puja for an indefinite period owing to excessive crowd pressure,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Headquarters), Rajeev Mishra. City Police Commissioner Surajit Kar Purakayastha decided to reach Deshpriya Park to guide the force and restore normalcy. But the Commissioner could not reach the venue due to massive traffic congestion, a senior official said. The Commissioner later boarded the underground train to reach Deshpriya Park, where the entire brass of the Kolkata police was waiting for him. However, much before the police chief reached the venue the puja-hoppers were asked to stay off the Deshpriya Park pandal.
“About a decade ago I was in Tehran and Iran had won an international football match. It was by the late evening that the government realised that everybody is out on the roads with their vehicle. The administration also realised that if the crowd enters the government buildings, the police cannot do much,” said Ranajay Guha, a civil engineer. “It was a near-similar situation in south Kolkata. If a major incident had occurred, it would have been impossible for the police to move in the city,” said Mr. Guha, who also tried to reach Deshpriya Park on Sunday evening with his family.
“We have asked the organisers to explain how they have planned to control the crowd and we will act accordingly,” Mr Mishra told The Hindu , while the Commissioner refrained from making a comment.
