Several Durga Puja committees that immersed their idols on Dashami, Wednesday, said that they had to wait for hours at the ghats to complete the ritual. More than 600 idols were immersed across Calcutta, the state administration said.
Immersions were fewer on Thursday, with police saying several committees had chosen to postpone the ritual, resulting in shorter queues at the ghats.
Many big puja organisers said they would immerse idols on Friday, ahead of the state-mandated October 24 deadline. “We have even identified an auspicious time for Friday’s immersion,” said Kajal Sarkar of Bosepukur Sitala Mandir puja committee.
Veteran organisers said immersions usually took an hour to an hour-and-a-half. This year, however, some committees that reached the ghats on Wednesday had to wait until the early hours of Thursday. Others said their immersions went off as usual, with the process taking about an hour.
Senior officials of Kolkata Police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said elaborate arrangements, with adequate personnel and machinery, had been made at more than 25 immersion ghats along the Hooghly.
Yet several organisers reported chaos. Metro looks at the reasons they believe things went wrong.
Overcrowding
The state government called off the post-Puja carnival on Red Road this year. In previous years, big pujas would hold off on immersion until after the carnival. This year, everyone headed to the ghats on Dashami.
“This time, everyone turned up at Babughat on Wednesday. Our number was in the 30s, but when we arrived, the immersion of the number 3 committee was under way,” said an organiser of a south Calcutta puja. The puja was a carnival participant until 2025.
“Ei bar bishal bheer chilo (There was a huge crowd this time),” he said.
Coordination gaps
Some committees said they could not see any coordination between the police and civic workers at Babughat.
“There was no cohesion this year. KMC staff seemed to be missing as vehicles kept arriving and idols were being unloaded. Workers were there, but nobody seemed ready to take ownership,” said the secretary of a puja committee. “By the early hours of Thursday, the workers seemed disinterested. No one was around to direct them.”
Traffic snarls
Organisers said barricades and guardrails erected at Babughat on Wednesday night hampered vehicle movement. The guardrails were placed horizontally, leaving committee members waiting near the barricade.
“There was chaos all over. We reached Babughat at 3am and had to wait almost five hours,” said Animesh Chattopadhyay of the Maddox Square puja committee. “It usually takes us an hour or an hour-and-a-half. The spontaneous participation of all agencies involved seemed to be missing.”
Patuli delays
A housing complex puja committee that went to Patuli Fire Station ghat on Wednesday said that poor crowd management and inadequate segregation of idols stretched the process from about an hour to nearly three hours.
“We go to Patuli for immersion every year, but we have never had to stand in such a long queue,” a committee member said.
The ghat has separate areas for smaller idols, including those from individual homes, and larger community puja idols. This year, idols of all sizes were directed through a single queue, causing congestion, the member said.
“The only good thing was that ropes were tied behind the structures this year so they could be pulled away faster after immersion,” the puja committee member said.
No cranes
The government banned cranes for immersion, citing Sanatan customs, andopted for manual trolleys instead.
“Forklifts were used this time, and the process was time-consuming. When we reached Babughat, it was low tide. Several structures lay on the bank, with no mechanism to remove them immediately. Until they were cleared, subsequent immersions could not proceed,” another committee member said.
“There were announcements... but there was no coordination among the agencies,” the member said.
Smooth immersions
Not all committees encountered delays. Gautam Neogy of Bagbazar SarbojaninDurgotsav Committee saidthe immersion at Bagbazar ghat was completed within an hour after the committee arrived around 1.30am on Thursday.
“With adequate labourers, we did not need forklifts. There were enough police personnel at the ghat, and we faced no problems,” he said.
Police response
A senior Kolkata Police officer said the number of community pujas had risen by nearly 400 this year, taking the total to 3,319.
“Most of them chose Wednesday for immersion, resulting in overcrowding. Around Babughat, morethan 300 additional idols were immersed across three ghats compared with last year,” he said.
The officer said the absence of cranes meant labourers had to move idols manually,making the process slower and requiring close supervision. Parts of the thoroughfare were sealed to preventcrowding by committeemembers.
Low tide in the Hooghly also slowed the process, the officer said.
The water level had dropped, and some committees had to wait because immersion could not be carried out in the mud, he said.