The Kolkata stampede that killed 19 people and injured 25 at a Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata has prompted the West Bengal government to seek a judicially headed investigation and consider ending separate VIP queues at crowded puja venues across the city.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Sunday that Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal would write to Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge to seek permission for a sitting judge to head the Special Investigation Team (SIT). If approval is not granted, the government will consider appointing a retired judge, Adhikari said.
The stampede occurred at the Chorbagan Durga Puja marquee on Saturday evening, when heavy rain, narrow access lanes and overcrowding were cited as factors by local residents. The chief minister said 19 people had died and 25 had been injured after a crowd surge at the venue.
The proposed SIT will include a home department official of at least joint secretary rank, representatives of the director general of police and the National Disaster Response Force, and state disaster management secretary Rajesh Sinha. Personnel from Kolkata Police, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the fire services department will not be part of the team, allowing the agencies’ possible lapses to be examined by investigators outside those departments.
The government has also formed a special inspection team to examine safety arrangements at major puja pandals in Kolkata and identify shortcomings. The team includes senior officials from the disaster management department, Director General of Fire Services Anuj Sharma and Special Task Force Additional Director General Javed Shamim.
Police station officers across the districts have been directed to inspect pandals in their jurisdictions, prepare crowd-management guidelines and ensure that organisers comply with them. Adhikari said the officers would be allowed to carry out their responsibilities without interference. He also said he would monitor crowd movement from the Kolkata Police headquarters traffic control room on Sunday evening.
A key proposed change concerns VIP access. Popular and high-budget puja committees often provide separate entry arrangements for visitors carrying VIP passes, which can allow them to bypass regular queues and may be sold at a premium. Adhikari said the government could do away with separate VIP gates, particularly at pandals attracting large crowds. “There will be no separate queues for VIPs,” he said.
The chief minister defended the police response to the incident despite eyewitness criticism over the availability of personnel when the stampede occurred. He said families of victims whom he had spoken to had described a different response and claimed that police had hired cabs through online aggregators to transport injured people to hospitals.
The government has announced compensation of Rs 25 lakh for each bereaved family and Rs 5 lakh for every person injured. Of the 19 people who died, one was from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and the others were residents of West Bengal. Magistrates and deputy superintendent of police-ranked officers have been assigned to oversee the handover of bodies and remain with families until cremations are completed.
Adhikari said 23 of the injured had suffered minor injuries and were likely to be discharged soon. Two others remained in intensive care, although doctors had informed him that their conditions were not life-threatening.
The chief minister is scheduled to visit the families of the deceased on October 20 and 21 and hand over compensation cheques. The state government will also hold a toned-down Bijoya Sammelani with Durga Puja committees from Kolkata and its suburbs on October 26. The meeting will review this year’s arrangements and discuss measures intended to prevent similar tragedies.
