Covid protocol and directives of Calcutta High Court were trampled upon in West Midnapore by around a lakh people and an administration that preferred to remain a bystander as Ravana went up in flames on the occasion of Dussehra in Kharagpur on Monday evening.

Instances of people preferring to overlook pandemic protocol were observed in several districts in south Bengal. Wherever such violation took place, the administration has been accused of looking the other way.

Sources said the tradition of Dussehra, which is locally known as Ravan Pora (burning of the effigy of Ravana), is a century-old tradition in Kharagpur and lakhs of people turn up at the Ravan Maidan every year to witness the spectacle.

The festival committee had initially planned to cancel this year’s event because of the rising Covid graph in the district but later changed the plan to honour “local sentiment”.

Among the lakh people who gathered at the ground on Monday were district magistrate Rashmi Kamal, who is a doctor, local Trinamul MLA Pradip Sarkar and Trinamul’s district president Ajit Maity. Sarkar, the president of the festival committee, is believed to be the man behind Monday’s show.

Several residents, however, questioned the presence of the district’s administrative head and political figures.

An official of the administration, however, tried to explain Kamal’s presence by saying that the annual event was held to honour the sentiments of the local people.

“Primarily everyone was asked to maintain social distancing norms but the huge rush made it impossible to do,” said a police officer on duty at the event.

Before the event began, Kamal said: “This festival has been organised for many years. Despite the fear of coronavirus, many people have come here but all of them are wearing masks and I am happy.”

However, after the programme ended and there were murmurs of criticism of the DM for taking part in a large gathering, Kamal preferred not to take calls.

Trinamul insiders said that despite knowing about the violation, the leadership did not want to risk hurting the sentiment of the people in the run up to next year’s crucial Assembly election.

“The BJP would have indulged in politics if we had cancelled the programme. The Trinamul did not want to take the risk of losing its support base by not holding the event,” said a ruling party leader in Kharagpur.Trinamul district president Ajit Maity admitted that it was impossible to control such a “huge and emotive crowd”.

The BJP, however, criticised Trinamul for violating Covid protocol.

“Trinamul is trying to woo Hindu voters and to do that they did not care for Covid protocol,” said Samit Das, BJP president in West Midnapore.

In Birbhum’s Nalhati over 1,000 people joined a procession to immerse an Durga idol on Monday night.

Police sources said they had asked the crowd to vacate the place citing Covid protocol but a large number of people started to agitate. If the police were accused of inaction in Kharagpur, in Nalhati it used force to disperse the gathering.

“There was no way but to disperse the mob to abide by Covid protocol. After the crowd was dispersed, a few members of the Puja committee and cops joined hands to immerse the idol,” said Shyam Singh, Birbhum police chief.

The promptness of the cops in Nalhati was absent in Nadia’s Kalyani where a few hundred revellers danced to popular Hindi numbers on the evening of Ashtami (Saturday) at the town’s Central Park violating all restrictive protocols imposed by the court.

Local sources said the organisers allowed nearly a thousand people inside the ground and allegedly encouraged them to dance violating Covid proto.

“Initially the police did not act for 30 minutes. When more people began to join the crowd and after receiving several calls from anxious citizens, the police asked the puja committee to stop the event,” a resident of Kalyani said.

"It was terrible to see such violations during a pandemic. Kalyani is a small town and till date 526 persons have tested Covid positive. We do not want a spike in Covid cases and those behind the show should be punished," he added.

Near Calcutta in Rajarhat's Sjikharpur a clash broke out among Trinamul Congress and BJP supporters over an immersion procession. At least seven men have been injured after the two groups who were part of two different immersion processions fought with bricks and stones. According to a Trinamul Congress supporter the csh broke out when an idol of a local club being taken for immersion was blocked by another that enjoyed the patronage of the BJP supporters.

Though Trinamul leaders accused the BJP of attacking them, Sabyasachi Dutta of the BJP blamed the rivals for the incident.

Additional reporting by Subhasish Chaudhuri and Snehal Sengupta