Despite being in a ‘majority’ around 300 families in Bengal’s Kanglapahari village of Birbhum district have been victim of ‘minority’ appeasement as the Hindu families for the fourth consecutive year were denied to perform Durga Puja following the objection from few Muslim families.
As the local administration has been denying a go-ahead, the Hindu families from last three years are running from pillar to submitting their plea to the office of the district magistrate, police superintendent, sub-divisional officer (SDO) and sub-divisional police officer (SDPO).
In the past three years, the local administration, panchayat and Nalhati police jointly prevented puja organisers from hosting the puja on the grounds of law and order issues.
This year the the appeal was first submitted to the office of SP on September 1 but Birbhum SP N Sudheer Kumar has said that he is unaware of the matter.
Chandan Sau a member of Kanglapahari Durga Mandir claims that since they have not been able to organise the annual festivity in their village, all women and children have to travel three to eight kilometres to celebrate the occasion in nearby villages.
“District officials are not responding as they don’t want to antagonise the Muslims,” Sau said
A petition had also been filed by a local resident in Calcutta High Court and there is a hearing on Monday.
