Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday brought under the investigation scanner temporary home guards deployed for duty at a Kolkata puja pandal during Saturday’s stampede, to scrutinise their role in the incident that left 19 people dead.
“My views about the disaster changed after I visited the site, compared to what I was initially briefed. The accident took place at the common entry and exit gate, and not inside the puja pandal, which was dimly lit. I shudder to think of the consequences if this had happened inside. “The organisers will also have to shoulder responsibility. There were problems with the theme as well. The Kolkata Police have arrested seven people, including organisers of Chorbagan Durga Puja, for the pandal stampede. Those arrested include the puja committee’s secretary, vice-president and two employees of a private security agency, among others.
No one knows where the death toll would have reached,” Adhikari said. We are keeping under the scanner the Kolkata Police and fire services department, which issued the necessary licenses and should have had these issues rectified beforehand,” he said. Adhikari also said that personnel of the Kolkata Police, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and fire services department have been kept out of the Special Investigation Team , which will be headed by a sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court, provided the state receives the nod of the Chief Justice.
