At least 19 people were killed and 25 were injured in a stampede at a prominent puja pandal in central Kolkata on Saturday evening.
Later in day the chief minister held a high-level meeting with senior police officials and bureaucrats across the state to take stock of the security arrangements in big-ticket pujas. He also monitored crowd and traffic management in Kolkata and other cities in the state from the police control rooms. A committee headed by the state disaster management secretary and comprising officers from fire department and Special Task Force will visit the prominent pujas in Kolkata and make recommendations whether any rectifications need to be made.
The chief minister announced government job and ex-gratia of ₹ 25 lakh for the next of kin of each of those who were killed in the accident. The injured would be given ₹ 5 lakh each and the state would bear their medical expenses.
West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said that the state government would set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a sitting judge of the Calcutta high court to probe into the incident While police arrested seven persons and booked them under sections dealing with culpable homicide not amounting murder. “I will try to visit the families who have lost their members on October 20 and 21,” Adhikari said. Meanwhile, preliminary probe by the police revealed that an announcement by the puja organisers on Saturday evening that the Chorebagan pandal could collapse while urging people to vacate the pandal triggered the stampede.
