Several puja organisers on Friday expressed their concern about the condition of roads and slow drainage of accumulated water over the past few days to Kolkata police commissioner Soumen Mitra and urged the civic authorities to address the problems on a war footing.
At a coordination meeting with Mitra and his officers from the force, many puja organisers said potholes on arterial roads and around puja pandals had been growing in size and wanted to know when repairs would begin.
Representatives of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, CESC and the fire brigade attended the meeting.
“There were concerns about waterlogging and road conditions from some of the puja organisers in places like Beleghata, Behala and College Street,” said a senior police officer who attended the meeting at Kala Mandir.
Between Sunday night and Tuesday, Kolkata had received over 200mm of rainfall.
A few puja committees raised their concerns about inadequate lighting arrangements around their pandals.
A few others, including a puja committee from Kasba, said the trimming of trees had remained incomplete.
“A unanimous demand of the puja committees was issuing night passes to those working on pandals so they could remain outdoors even after the night curfew kicks in at 11pm,” said Sandipan Banerjee of Behala Notun Dal. “The police commissioner granted the permission.”
Saswata Basu, of Hatibagan Sarbojonin Durgotsav Committee, said: “KMC officials said they needed two days of sunshine without any drizzle for the repairs.”
