Barrier down: People bathing at the Tarakeswar pond flouting restrictions. Picture by Prakush Pal

Tarakeswar, April 5: Hundreds of devotees ignored a high court order and a pollution control board bar to take a holy dip at Dudhpukur next to the Shiv temple here recently.

With the blessings of the Tarakeswar estate committee, the bathers broke through a fence surrounding the pond on March 31 in the absence of policemen.

The contravention of the court order, passed over two years ago, has put the Hooghly administration on alert, with the district magistrate asking superintendent of police Ajoy Kumar to post pickets around the pond.

“We will move against anyone bathing in the pond,” said district magistrate Roshni Sen.

In February 2002, the high court had said the highly polluted water of Dudhpukur, used by thousands of pilgrims and residents over the years for bathing, washing clothes and as a drainage outlet, should be drained out and the basin cleaned and refilled with fresh water.

Its concern stemmed from the fact that water from the pond was used as charnamrita (holy water), consumed by pilgrims as a form of divine blessing.

The order followed a petition by the Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samiti, which pointed out the hazards posed by the unclean water. The court gave the district administration two years to implement its order.

The March 31 dip was part of a yagna performed by the estate committee to mark an “auspicious opening” of the cleansed pond. “The ceremony was held on the inauguration of the new Dudhpukur,” said Sandip Chakraborty, the general secretary of the temple priests’ union.

Chakraborty and manager of the estate committee Kartik Mukherjee had approached the district administration for permission to use the pond as the court ordered cleansing was over. Sen told them that she had neither received a job complete certificate from the public health engineering department, which had been entrusted with the work, nor got any clearance from the pollution control board or the court.

About Rs 73 lakh was spent for the work, which included erection of a fence around the pond. Sen said she would submit a report to the government on the developments leading to the March 31 breach.

Days before that, a lawyer representing the estate committee had written to the Chandernagore subdivisional officer saying that the administration was hurting religious sentiments by not allowing pilgrims to bathe.

With several thousand pilgrims likely to congregate here for Gajon Mela, beginning Wednesday, the court order is again at risk of being flouted. The administration, though, made it clear today that no bathing would be allowed. “Policemen will barricade the pond,” Kumar said.

Mukherjee said the temple authorities will cooperate, but added: “The pilgrims take dips despite our protests.”