Kolkata puja safety measures are being tightened after a fatal incident at Chorbgan, with the state government announcing that major Durga Puja pandals will no longer operate separate VIP or LIP entry lines. Visitors will have to enter through a single queue, while special teams inspect pandals across the city and can impose controlled entry where necessary.
The decisions were announced after a high-level meeting at Bhabanibhavan on Sunday, October 18, according to Sangbad Pratidin. The report attributed the announcement to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who said the administration was acting after the previous day’s incident and would take steps based on the experience.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal, state police Director General Siddhinath Gupta and other senior officials. The chief minister said a special team had been formed to examine deficiencies at major puja venues and assess safety arrangements across the city.
According to the report, the team is led by the secretary of the state disaster management department, Fire Services Director General Anuj Sharma and Special Task Force Additional Director General Javed Shamim. It began work on Saturday night and was reviewing the arrangements at puja pandals, the report said.
The team will have authority to take decisions at the site, including regulating the number of visitors when required. The chief minister said separate lines would not be maintained for VIPs and LIPs, making a common queue the announced access system for major pandals.
The shift is significant because large Kolkata puja venues typically have to manage several overlapping pressures at once: high visitor volumes, restricted movement around installations, emergency access and differentiated entry arrangements. The government’s announced response places queue design and visitor volume within the immediate safety review, although the report did not provide a detailed operating protocol for individual pandals.
The administration has also ordered a fact-finding inquiry into the Chorbgan incident. Sangbad Pratidin reported that 19 people would be honoured at a state Vijay Sammilani programme on October 26, while compensation cheques would be handed to injured people. The event will be held on a significantly reduced scale, according to the chief minister’s statement cited in the report.
The report did not provide further details about how the Chorbgan incident occurred, the specific safety lapses identified so far, or the amount of compensation to be paid. Those details are expected to form part of the fact-finding process and the inspections now under way.
The chief minister also appealed to visitors to attend puja venues with sympathy for the affected families and said he would remain with them over the next two or three days. The immediate administrative steps announced are the removal of separate VIP and LIP queues, inspections of all city pandals, possible controlled entry and the fact-finding inquiry into the incident.
