‘We constructed the temple,’ say CR Park fish distributors to shutdown menace

Mithoon Das, one other shopkeeper, mentioned he has been promoting fish within the space for 25 years and what occurred that day was unprecedented.

“Round 4 or 5 days in the past, just a few folks got here and informed us that we needed to shut down our retailers as a result of we can not promote fish close to a temple,” Das mentioned.

Ashok Bose, the vice-chairman of the EPDP, an apex physique of the Bengali group in CR Park, mentioned the group grew to become conscious of the difficulty by means of social media.

He mentioned the fish market affiliation has submitted a grievance to the EPDP, and its secretary, Ashok Bhattacharjee, would file a police grievance at the moment.

“The fish market was right here even earlier than the temple was constructed. In reality, shopkeepers pooled cash to construct the temple,” Bose mentioned.

He argued that throughout India, temples are generally positioned close to markets and even inside police stations so folks can provide prayers earlier than beginning their day.

“Nobody has had any concern with the temple being subsequent to a fish market till now,” he added.

Sanjeev Bhattacharya, a priest on the Kali Temple close to the market, mentioned fish has a commemorated place in Bengali traditions.

“We provide fish to the goddess throughout Durga Puja and serve it at weddings. Each tradition has its practices, and nobody ought to oppose that,” he mentioned.

“Those that eat fish haven’t got an issue with the market, however those that do not, typically do. There are additionally wine retailers and hookah parlours close to the temple, however nobody objects to these,” he added.