Kolkata puja crowd control has been tightened after a reported stampede at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja, with senior police officers being brought back for festival-related duties and all police stations receiving an 11-point directive, according to Sangbad Pratidin. The report says the decision followed an incident in which 19 people died and many others were injured, although the casualty figures and administrative measures require confirmation from official records.
The report says Nabanna reassigned senior IPS officers with previous experience in managing large Puja crowds. It names Sumanjit Roy, Inspector General of Police in the Border wing; Mahmoud Akhtar of the Intelligence Branch; Miraj Khalid, Inspector General of Police in the Traffic wing; Rupesh Kumar, Deputy Inspector General of the Special Task Force; Shubhankar Bhattacharya, Deputy Inspector General of Traffic; Tarun Haldar, Deputy Inspector General of the Criminal Investigation Department; Soumya Roy, Superintendent of Security in the Enforcement Branch; Priyabrata Roy, Superintendent of Traffic; and Dipak Sarkar of the Criminal Investigation Department.
However, the report describes the deployment inconsistently, referring in different passages to nine IPS officers and seven officers. That discrepancy is significant because the number and identities of officers assigned to crowd management determine how responsibility is distributed across the police organisation. A primary-source confirmation from the state government or police department is needed before the deployment can be treated as fully established.
The reported 11-point instructions require officers in charge of police stations and assistant commissioners to inspect major Puja pandals in person and review their security arrangements. The source does not reproduce the full set of instructions, so it is not possible to establish from the report whether they cover entry and exit separation, emergency access, queue design, crowd-density monitoring, rain-related risks or evacuation procedures.
According to the report, the incident took place on the night of Maha Saptami at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja in north Kolkata. It says a large crowd entered a narrow lane, while rain complicated movement around the pandal. Some visitors were attempting to enter, while others were reluctant to leave through an exit because of the weather. The report says the resulting congestion led to a rush and that part of the pandal structure collapsed under crowd pressure. These details remain allegations or preliminary descriptions in the supplied report and require confirmation through the investigation.
The report further says that seven people, including organisers associated with the Puja committee, were arrested after the incident. It also says that a special investigation team was formed and that a high-level meeting was held at Bhavani Bhavan. The source attributes these actions to the state administration but does not provide the relevant order, police statement or investigation document.
The reported response places responsibility for festival safety across organisers, local police stations and senior officers from specialised police branches. It also highlights the operational difficulty of managing sudden crowd surges in narrow urban lanes, particularly when rain affects both inflow and exit movement. The next verifiable milestones are the publication of an official casualty figure, confirmation of the reassigned officers and the findings of the special investigation team.
