The pandals of south Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park will be missing this year after their organisers told civic authorities on Monday that there wouldn’t be any public festivities because of the coronavirus pandemic.

After steering a meeting between organisers of several Durga Puja pandals in the area and the district administration, police and municipal authorities, local MLA and spokesperson of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, Saurabh Bharadwaj, said over a dozen committees of C.R. Park, Greater Kailash, Alaknanda and Kalkaji were unanimous in their decision to eschew large gatherings and pandals.

“Most of the population of C.R. Park and members of puja committees are senior citizens and it is important that they remain indoors and avoid contact with unknown people in pandals,” Bharadwaj said. “Only for religious reasons, a small Kalash Puja or Ghot Puja will be attended by 10-15 committee members. This will ensure continuity of puja by those committees.”

C.R. Park is a major settlement for people from East Bengal who were displaced because of the Partition. This will be the first time since 1970 that there will be no pandals this year.

Major pandals in other parts of the National Capital Region are also not being erected this year.

Many puja committees are offering online streaming of the pujas. One pandal in Gurgaon has collected money to be sent to dhakis (drummers) who usually come from Bengal to play here.

C.R. Park’s Kali Mandir is offering home delivery of bhog via online booking with Rs 1,500 a plate.

A source said cooks would be tested for Covid-19 before the festival begins and would be required to stay on the temple premises until the festivities end.

Cable channel DEN and Tata Sky are also expected to broadcast the morning pujas and evening aartis.In the meeting with authorities in Delhi, puja committees and local representatives have asked police to put barricades on roads to restrict visitors entering C.R. Park who may not know that there are no pandals this year.

In contrast, crowds have locked pandals in Bengal until Calcutta High Court banned the entry of public on Monday. Delhi’s iconic Ramleela’s and symbolic igniting of effigies of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhakarna for Dussehra will also not take place.

Mughal emperor Shah Jahan began the burning of effigies and fireworks around 350 years ago. The only year it did not take place was in 1965 when then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri asked people to donate the corpus for festivities to families of troops killed in the war with Pakistan.

This year, all major Ramleela committees — including the ones where the President, Prime Minister and other political leaders go to symbolically fire an arrow to set Ravana ablaze — have declared that they are unable to implement the stringent Covid-19 guidelines put in place by the Delhi government, only last week.