A delegation of the Chhath Puja Sangharsh Samiti on Thursday met Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai after the AAP government decided to ban community Chhath festivities at the ghats this year to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The Delhi Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) has ordered that Chhath Puja will not be held at any public place this time due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The DDMC has suggested that people can worship and celebrate the festival in private places.
Asserting that people from Purvanchal are not happy with this decision of the Delhi government, a delegation of the Chhath Puja Sangharsh Samiti met Rai to request for reconsidering their decision.
The delegation also included Bhavana Gaur, Aam Aadmi Party’s MLA from the Palam constituency.
After the meeting, Gaur said, “We have requested them to allow the festival to be held in a limited number of gatherings with some rules in place. Gopal Rai has given us the assurance that he will talk to the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor regarding the same. The government should formulate some rules for Chhath Puja and this ban should be lifted at the earliest. People wait for the whole year for Chhath Puja and it is a matter related to their faith. There was a similar problem during Ramlila but the government found a solution.”
The COVID-19 cases have rapidly increased in the national capital and touched a new peak by crossing 8,000 positive cases in the past 24 hours. It recorded 8,593 new positive cases and 85 deaths on Wednesday while 7,264 patients recovered from the infection.
The death rate so far stands at 1.57 percent while it remained at 0.99 per cent in the last 10 days.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said: “In view the of safety and to avoid crowd gathering amid the pandemic, we have decided to ban community Chhath Puja celebrations near the ghats this year. The officials have been directed to take strict action against people not following COVID-19 protocols.”
