Most puja clubs in Salt Lake and Rajarhat Gopalpur have not completed the removal of pandals and temporary banners from parks and grounds owned or maintained by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, despite an October 28 civic deadline. The organisers now face daily ground booking charges and penalties for leaving structures and roadside hoardings in place.
The deadline applied to puja organisers using BMC parks, community spaces and vacant plots for temporary pandals. According to civic directives reported by the Times of India, organisers who fail to clear the grounds can be charged for continued occupation on a daily basis. Clubs were also directed to remove temporary banners and hoardings installed along roadsides, with penalties prescribed for non-compliance.
Removal work had begun across several parts of Salt Lake, but only a few organisers had fully vacated the premises by the deadline. In many locations, dismantling activity was still under way, while temporary structures continued to occupy public or civic-controlled land.
The delay follows Lakshmi Puja, which was observed on October 25. Puja organisers said the short period between the festival and the civic deadline made it difficult to dismantle the pandals, remove associated materials and restore the entire ground within three days.
“Lakshmi Puja was observed last Sunday and the process to remove the pandal had started. However, it is not practically possible to fully vacate the entire ground by Wednesday. We are ready to pay the ground booking charge,” an organiser of a Salt Lake puja told the Times of India.
The issue places the BMC’s temporary-use rules alongside the practical demands of dismantling large festival installations. Pandal removal typically involves taking down structural frames, decorative surfaces and electrical fittings before clearing leftover materials from the site. The civic directive, however, links continued occupation directly to booking charges, making the condition of the ground and the timing of clearance an administrative and financial matter for organisers.
The unfinished clearances also extend beyond park interiors. Temporary banners and hoardings placed on roadsides had not been removed in several locations, according to the report. Their continued presence affects the civic authority’s effort to return public spaces and road edges to normal use after the festival period.
For the BMC, enforcement now depends on documenting which organisers continue to occupy the grounds and which temporary advertisements remain in place. For the clubs, failure to complete the process can increase the cost of using civic land beyond the original booking period. The report did not specify the amount of the daily ground booking charge or the penalty applicable to individual organisers.
The civic deadline has therefore passed without a complete return of the affected parks and grounds to municipal control. Organisers in Salt Lake and Rajarhat Gopalpur are expected to continue dismantling the remaining structures and removing banners, while the BMC’s stated charges and penalties remain applicable to delayed clearances.
