A Durga puja meeting held by the New Town CC Block Residents' Welfare Association ended with members coming to blows. Both sides have lodged FIRs and for the third year, uncertainty looms over the fate of their puja. The question is not whether or not CC Block will have a puja but how many it will have.
In the early years, the puja was organised by the CC Block Puja Samity, which was registered in 2019. A new association was formed by some residents in 2021 and it started performing puja in the ground after getting the go-ahead from the Newtown Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA). The samity filed multiple court cases, challenging the right of the other group to take over the ground.
In 2022, the NKDA denied an NOC to the association as late as on Panchami. Since all preparations were ready, they held the puja on the ground anyway. The samity held its puja on an empty plot.
This year, the samity is organising puja on the ground and has sought an NOC. The association had called a meeting on September 6 to discuss their puja, when the free-for-all broke out.
"The president and other members beat us up. I was worst hit, with a cut on my forehead," says Atanu Mahapatra, former secretary. President Amitava Bhattacharjee, 70, claims he and his allies were the ones hit by Mahapatra and company. Both parties have lodged FIRs.
The bone of contention was the puja itself. "I wanted to declare that the association was in no state to hold puja this year," says Bhattacharjee. "We are embarrassed to admit that the puja sub-committee from last year has, to date, failed to furnish its accounts. Without that, why will advertisers or residents pay subscriptions afresh? No idol has been booked, no NOC obtained, litigations are pending..."
Mahapatra, on the other hand, alleges Bhattacharjee has joined hands with the samity. "The puja sub-committee has no access to the association's bank accounts, which is where last year's subscription money went. If they want spending details, let them first give access to this," he says. "As for this year, we have applied for NOC and if we get it, we can pull off the puja in seven days."
Either way the samity has started work on its pandal. "Ours will be the only puja in the block this year and residents are overjoyed to be celebrating as one. Last year, we got subscriptions from more than 200 of the 500-plus families in the block and this year we crossed that figure in a week," says Biman Samaddar, secretary of the samity.