Calcutta, Oct.24 :    Calcutta, Oct.24:  With a day to go for Kali Puja, the age-old practice of animal sacrifice at the Kalighat temple is kicking up a controversy, yet again. Animal rights bodies are preparing to hit the streets on October 26, Kali Puja, to protest the 'cruel custom'. People For Animals, Compassionate Crusaders' Trust and Beauty Without Cruelty will hold a silent demonstration at the Kalighat temple on Thursday, condemning this ritual. The NGOs have obtained necessary police permission for the protest march. PFA, an NGO striving to mobilise public opinion against this 'malpractice' for some time now, wrote to mayor Subrata Mukherjee on Tuesday, urging him to stop animal sacrifice at the temple. The letter urges him to exercise his 'mayoral powers and withdraw permission given under Section 428 (a) and to enforce Section 428 (b), earmarking an appropriate place where this ritual can be performed out of public view, in camera.' Copies of the letter have also been sent to the municipal commissioner and minister of state for social justice and empowerment Maneka Gandhi. 'Our aim is to mobilise public resistance against this primitive and damaging practice,' said Purnima L. Toolsidass, PFA trustee. 'When our future generation is desensitised to pain and bloodshed, it encourages criminalisation in society,' said Debasis Chakrabarti, managing trustee, PFA. Incidentally, on this ground, a division bench of Kerala High Court had upheld two writ petitions on April 5 this year, directing the authorities concerned to prevent the slaughter of animals in places where children would be exposed to it. 'It is indeed a very sensitive issue,' said Mukherjee, 'and we must tread with utmost caution so as not to hurt sentiments. I do agree it is a cruel custom, but ritual animal sacrifice is a custom which has been prevalent for years and it is practically impossible to weed it out overnight.' The mayor also felt that 'little can be achieved through the legal route', unless the 'people and the authorities concerned become more conscious'. Santipada Bhattacharya, head priest of Kalighat temple, agreed that animal slaughter is a 'cruel custom', but refused to be dragged into a controversy. 'All I can say is that this is a ritual which has deep and complicated connotations in religion and demands a debate on a larger scale,' he said. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act, Section 490 (concerning environmental sanitation), along with Section 338 (about deposition of solid waste in municipal drains) and Section 303 (concerning input of unsuitable material in the drains), as well as Section 501 (prohibition of corruption of water by steeping therein animal parts or other matter), are all violated at the Kalighat temple, the letter to the mayor states. Even people outside the state have, over the years, joined the crusade against animal slaughter at the Kalighat temple. A.V.K. Moosad, president, Kerala Animal Lovers Association, had filed a petition with Calcutta High Court in August, appealing for legislation 'to prohibit the killing of animals in sacrifice in the temples of West Bengal'. 'In Kerala, animal sacrifice in temples like Kodungallur, in Ernakulam district, has been stopped long ago as a result of public consciousness against such horrible practices,' Moosad wrote in his plea.