[Reader-list] Despite HC order, chhath celebrations to be grand

[rakesh at sarai.net]

Dear All

Now Sanjay Nirupam has to go to the court in response to sume 
environmental group. Following is the detailed news:
*

Despite HC order, chhath celebrations to be grand*


Mumbai: Despite a Bombay High Court directive restricting chhat 
celebrations on Saturday on Juhu beach, one of the organiser of the 
celebrations Sanjay Nirupam says the celebrations will happen full scale 
but without cocking a snook at the courts.

He has moved the operative part of the celebrations to the grounds of 
the hotel and not Juhu beach per se, where the court has restricted the 
size of the stage (which has to accommodate an enormous number of film 
stars and politicians) to just 150 square feet.

The Hotel Horizon abuts the Juhu beach and has vast acres of empty space 
surrounding the actual building.

Nirupam has now secured a no-objection certificate from the hotel – 
which is private property and so outside the purview of objections by 
environmentalists opposing the celebrations – and a 60 by 100 square 
foot stage will rise above the walls of the hotel from where the 
expected five lakh people gathered on Juhu beach can view the celebrities.

Nirupam is moving a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court on 
Thursday in this regard to close all possibilities of dispute with 
environmentalists.

Meanwhile, he has already moved the Vacation Judge on Wednesday and 
secured the court's permission for kirtans and bhajans on chhat puja on 
Saturday.

The judge, however, has asked the organisers to secure permission of the 
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for the loudspeakers and Nirupam's 
SLP will also seek an interpretation of the 10 pm deadline with regard 
to noise pollution.

Then, again, around four private trusts are being brought together to 
work round the court directive which says changing rooms for women 
should not be more than two per celebration.

Nirupam said it was impossible to follow this directive without 
factoring in the possibility of a stampede because of the restricted 
enclosure.

"We expect five lakh people of which around 4000-5000 women would be 
fasting. Each enclosure cannot accommodate more than two women and as 
you know one woman will not change before another. Under the 
circumstances, we have had to persuade the various organisations to come 
together to construct two enclosures each so that more women can change 
at a time."

Nirupam said if this amounted to contempt of court, he was willing to 
appear before the judges and pay the price but he had to avoid the 
possibility of untoward accidents at all cost.

"It will be a five-hour do and we cannot keep the people idle all this 
time until the main event begins, otherwise they would get into fights 
and stampedes. So we had to move the Vacation Judge today."

However, there is one court directive he has no way to combat: that 
there should be no political posters at the chhat celebrations. Nirupam 
sounded pretty unhappy about it. "I will follow that directive but what 
happens later to Ganpati celebrations which have a political origin and 
to dahi handi celebrations which have acquired political overtones over 
the years?"

Nirupam, who joined the Congress after quitting the Sena a couple of 
yeas ago, bases his powers on the large number of uttar bharatiyas in 
Mumbai and the chhat celebrations are essential to that as they are not 
to Kripa Shankar Singh, his north Indian rival in the party who is from 
Uttar Pradesh.

Now Nirupam says, "Celebration of festivals is my constitutional right. 
How can anyone object to it?"

What about the enormous amounts of garbage that the revelers might leave 
behind on the beach? That is the main objection of the Juhu Citizens 
Welfare group which moved the courts against celebrations - that they 
leave behind mounds of garbage that desoils the beach for weeks.

The organisers have closed that particular debate with the greens by 
hiring Sulabh International to sweep Juhu beach clean the next day. "We 
will personally supervise the disposal of the last piece of garbage on 
the beach and leave it as clean as before," adds Nirupam.

Source: Hindustan Times

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Rakesh Kumar Singh
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