Kolkata, Oct 23 (PTI) Braving light rains, many people visited the puja pandals on Mahasaptami the second day of the five-day festivities, but the usual crowd of previous years was missing due to the pandemic situation and the high court order making the marquees as no-entry zones.

From Hatibagan Sarbojonin in the north to Naktala Udayan Sangha and Deshopriyo Park in the south, the buzz and the long wait near the pandal of past years was conspicuously absent as the handful of visitors came before the barricaded 'no entry' point to see the idol, the theme, the interiors and the illumination from a distance on Friday.

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The scene was similar before mega budget pujas like Ekdalia Evergreen and Bosepukur Sitala Mandir in the south and Chaltabagan in the north where traffic moved smoothly along one side of the road and revellers wearing masks could freely watch the deity without jostling.

At College Square, Beleghata 33 Pally, Tridhara Sammilani, Kashi Bose Lane the pandals had to be shut down completely for visitors as the idol, kept inside the marquee, could not be viewed from a 10-metre distance as ordered by the Calcutta High Court.

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"Our puja is as good as over," Bikash Majumder, office-bearer of College Square puja committee, told PTI, adding they would have planned differently had this development taken place one month before the puja.

The familiar scene of adda at the Maddox Square Durga Puja ground was missing as the committee arranged virtual darshan of 'arati', 'pushpanjali' and other rituals through youtube streaming.

Several puja committees like Suruchi Sangha, Mudiali Club, Tridhara Sammilani, Kashi Bose Lane, Santoshpur Lake Palli also made similar arrangements for live streaming.

At Belur Math, the global headquarters of Ramakrishna Math and Mission, different rituals by monks were live streamed which could be seen by clicking on web links.

Partha Ghosh, one of the organisers of Shib Mandir Durga Puja said "the turnout is definitely far less than last years but that is expected. Those who are coming can see the deity from road and the pandal decoration on outside wall. We have to accept the fact that the situation is different for everyone this year."

Soutik Sanyal, a college student, was disappointed as he could not see the Kashi Bose Lane and College Square Pujas, "the two pujas in north he had been visiting since school days.

"I will have to settle for the live streaming on youtube," Sanyal, accompanied by two friends, said.

An officer of the Kolkata Police said not many people were seen swarming the streets during the day, and no report of court order violation was received from anywhere in the city.

He, however, asserted that all arrangements were in place for crowd management.

The Calcutta High Court, in an order on Monday, declared community Durga Puja pandals as "no-entry zones", disallowing visitors from entering the marquees, amid the surge in COVID-19 cases across the state.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)