Chhath crowd surges at Hooghly riverfront

KOLKATA: Police and officials of KMC and KMDA put their best foot forward on Friday to manage the surge of devotees at 40 odd ghats along the Hooghly. With Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar out of bounds, around 1,500 vehicles lined at these ghats — stretching from Prinsep Ghat to Nimtolla Ghat — and the celebrations went off more or less smoothly, barring a couple of stray incidents.
At Doi Ghat, for example, things were methodical as cops prepared barricades for entry and exit. No one was allowed to linger at the ghats. But at Prinsep Ghat, for a brief few minutes, the crowd broke down barriers as they tried to surge foward. The situation was immediately brought under control as elders from the community and cops intervened.
At Nimtolla and Baje Kadamtala ghats, the police, the civic officials and volunteers struggled to make thousands to follow social distancing norms after 5pm. There were around 700 vehicles in the Babughat sector and another 550 in the Nimtolla sector. “The crowd was thin around 3.30 pm, almost one-fifth of the usual yearly devotees here. But an hour later, there was a sudden surge and maintaining distancing became difficult. But they dispersed quickly,” said an officer.
According to a KMC parks department official, the crowd surge was more than it was anticipated. “More people chose the river after the ban at Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar,” he said.
(With inputs from Amit Moulick)