Traders stop Vis-Bharati from erecting boundary wall around 'Poush Mela' ground

Visva-Bharati authorities have decided to scrap Poush Mela citing its "bitter experience" of the last two years in organising the winter carnival in Santiniketan amid a tussle with traders on making them comply with National Green Tribunal (NGT) guidelines, university sources said. Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty had held local traders responsible for the decision to stop the fair from this year.

Miffed by the decision of Visva-Bharati to call off over a century-old 'Poush Mela' from this year, a local traders' body on Saturday prevented the university authorities from erecting a boundary wall along with the fairground. The traders' association, Bolpur Byabosayee Samity, also claimed that it will organize Poush Mela, saying that the fair has been embedded in the heritage of Santiniketan.

Poush Mela is a handicraft, handloom, art and music festival held in the Bengali month of Poush, usually December-end. Rabindranath Tagore's father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore first organised the fair in 1894 and Visva-Bharati, the university founded by the Nobel laureate, started organising it from 1951. Visva-Bharati authorities have decided to scrap Poush Mela citing its "bitter experience" of the last two years in organising the winter carnival in Santiniketan amid a tussle with traders on making them comply with National Green Tribunal (NGT) guidelines, university sources said.

Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty had held local traders responsible for the decision to stop the fair from this year. He had also said that the university was "ill-equipped" to handle the event attended by thousands of people from across the country and abroad. Sources said that a wall around the fairground was needed so that "outsiders" do not get access to it.

As workers started erecting the boundary wall, several traders rushed to the spot, stopped them from carrying out the work and allegedly manhandled them, they said. "We will stop Visva Bharati from snatching away the Poush Mela ground from local people. It is used by morning walkers. Children also play on this ground," a spokesman of the traders' body said.

He, however, denied manhandling anyone. If the central university does not organise Poush Mela, "we will do it. It has been embedded in the heritage of Santiniketan," he said.

The vice-chancellor couldn't be reached for comments on the incident. On July 4, the vice-chancellor had said while the central university had to bear all expenses and take responsibility for organising the Poush Mela, a section of stall-owners did not pay heed to the guidelines.

As a result, the university was pulled up by the NGT for flouting environmental rules for two successive years and it had to pay hefty fines running into lakhs to West Bengal Pollution Control Board, sources said.

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