The West Bengal government is considering an end to separate VIP queues at Durga Puja pandals and has proposed a judicially supervised investigation after a stampede at Kolkata’s Chorbagan pandal killed 19 people and injured 25 during heavy rain on Saturday evening.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Sunday that Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal would write to Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge seeking permission for a sitting judge to head the Special Investigation Team (SIT). If permission is not granted, the government will seek to appoint a retired judge, Adhikari said.
The 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. Kolkata Police, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the fire services department have been excluded from the team so that possible lapses by these agencies can be examined independently.
The government has also formed a special inspection team to review safety arrangements at major puja pandals across Kolkata. 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 instructed to inspect pandals in their jurisdictions, prepare crowd-management guidelines and ensure that organisers comply with them.
Adhikari said separate VIP entry gates could be removed, particularly at pandals that attract large crowds. Popular and high-budget puja committees often provide special access to visitors carrying VIP passes, allowing them to bypass regular queues. “There will be no separate queues for VIPs,” he said, adding that visitor numbers could be regulated where necessary.
The announcement followed criticism from eyewitnesses and local residents over crowd management at the Chorbagan pandal. Heavy rainfall, narrow access lanes and overcrowding were cited as possible factors in the stampede. Adhikari defended the police response, saying families of victims had told him that police personnel helped transport injured people to hospitals, including by hiring cabs through online aggregators.
The state government has announced compensation of Rs 25 lakh for each bereaved family and Rs 5 lakh for every injured person. Of the 19 people who died, one was from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and the remaining victims were from 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.
Twenty-three injured people suffered minor injuries and were expected to be discharged, while two remained in intensive care. Doctors told the chief minister that their conditions were not life-threatening.
The government will 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 to prevent similar incidents. Compensation cheques for the injured will also be handed over at the event, according to the chief minister.
