Kolkata: A Durga Puja committee in Sealdah is racing against time to build its planned London Bridge-themed pandal after a last-minute permission dispute left organisers with barely three weeks to complete preparations.The Sealdah Railway Athletic Club has been organising Durga Puja at the Railway Quarter Netaji Subhas Ground near Sealdah Station since 1948. According to the club, it applied for permission in June, as it does every year, but was still awaiting permission when an individual associated with a workers’ union secured approval in Aug for khuti puja at the same ground.The individual, Kankan Kumar Gunri, subsequently printed invitation cards for a Khuti Puja scheduled for Sept 1. The cards identified him as the president of the puja and listed two BJP MPs as chief guests, along with several govt officials.“Like every year, this year too we made a formal application to the authorities in the Sealdah division in June. The puja has been going on since 1948 and we have records of written permission for the past 40 years,” said Srijit Saha, secretary of Athletic Club Durga Puja.Athletic Club then approached the authorities after learning that permission had been granted to Gunri.Some officials proposed that the “two groups jointly organise the puja”, but Athletic Club members did not agree. The authorities subsequently cancelled Gunri’s permission and, earlier this week, gave Athletic Club verbal permission to hold the puja. The committee is yet to receive the permission in writing.Members of Athletic Club have alleged that Gunri is close to the party in office, though the allegation has not been independently established. His Facebook profile identifies him as associated with several religious organisations and workers’ unions. In social media posts, Gunri has alleged that the authorities withdrew permission for the puja after granting all the necessary approvals.Calls to Gunri’s two phone numbers went unanswered until Saturday evening, and he did not respond to text messages.By the time Athletic Club received verbal permission, weeks of preparation time had been lost. The club conducted its Khuti Puja on Thursday, leaving only about three weeks before the festival. Work on the puja began only two days ago, while the idol had also been kept on hold.“We organised the Khuti Puja with only three weeks to go for the festival. The idol was also kept on hold. The work began only two days ago. We are afraid that we might not be able to finish everything before the festival begins,” said Saha.The delay has left organisers uncertain whether they can execute the London Bridge theme as planned. “A lot of time has been lost and we are depending on our artist to finish the work,” said Saha.“The delay has affected not just the pandal but also the idol and the wider preparations for the puja. We have also incurred financial losses due to the delay in getting permission,” said Saha.
