KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to allow only those pilgrims who are fully vaccinated and have tested negative in an RT-PCR test to head to Sagar Island for the annual pilgrimage and reconstituted the panel set up to monitor compliance of its order by replacing leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari and the state human rights commission representative with a retired high court judge.
In a fresh order, the bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Kesang Doma Bhutia said retired high court judge Samapti Chatterjee would be chairperson of the new committee, which would have the member secretary, West Bengal Legal Rights Authority, as its other member.
The bench held that the chief secretary would be personally liable to ensure compliance of all its directions. Additionally, the health secretary would be responsible for monitoring vaccination compliance of the pilgrims.
The revised court order followed five pleas filed before the bench questioning the composition of the three-member monitoring panel with political and state government representatives and complaints that the state was not complying with the directives issued by the court.
In its January 7 order, the HC, besides setting up the monitoring committee, had asked the government to strictly enforce its own notification that bars the assembly of more than 50 persons at a time in any social, religious or cultural gathering.
Panel can ban entry if order not implemented
The two-member monitoring panel has been empowered to recommend a ban on entry to Sagar Islands if it notices any shortcoming in implementation of the court's directions or finds that the gathering at the fair is leading to spread of Covid.
On Tuesday, the high court also reiterated its earlier order asking the state to issue a notification under Section 3 of Gangasagar Mela Act, 1976, declaring the entire Sagar Islands as notified area within 24 hours. The state government had notified only the fair ground.
While several thousand pilgrims are already at Gangasagar, thousands more are converging on Kolkata and making their way to the annual pilgrimage site. The South 24 Parganas DM officially inaugurated the Gangasagar Mela on Monday.
