KOLKATA: They might have planned to start the day with offering prayer to Maa Durga early Sunday morning of Mahasaptami day and then get out of residences for pandal hopping in Kolkata from this evening but the Saturday’s incident of stampede at Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durgotsav Puja Committee pandal in the northern part of the city claiming 19 lives changed everything.
With tearful eyes bereaved family members and relatives of the deceased assembled at the police morgue of the state-run Medical College and Hospital on College Street one after another this morning to identify and collect bodies instead of offering prayer to the goddess Durga and pandal-hopping. The grief-stricken family members and relatives could not even imagine that their dearest ones have left them all forever.
Binod Haldar, father of his 17-year-old deceased daughter Barnali Halder, came from New Town to collect her body. He burst into tear and said, "Barnali along with her friends went out of the house to see the goddess Durga at Salt Lake on Saturday but they changed their plans. They went to Chorbagan puja pandal instead of going to Salt Lake. Then, we got the news around 8 pm yesterday.”
Binod got the news from Barnali’s friend and reached the hospital on Saturday night since when he has been waiting there with broken heart. “I lost everything and Durga Puja will never come back in our life. She left us forever,” Binod, a rickshaw puller by profession said.
Saurav Mondal, a resident of Kumortuli in north Kolkata, along with his mother Mithu Mondal went out of their residence on Saturday to see the Durga idol at Chorbagan. He was seen waiting in front of the morgue since this morning to collect his mother’s body.
"I could not save my mother. There was a sudden rush among the crowd when we were trying coming out of the pandal. Several people fell on me while my mother was found lying on the ground. She died on the spot in front me,” Saurav said alleging, "Crowd management system was very bad as no police personnel and civic volunteer was found there during rush triggered by rain leading the stampede."
Sudama Routh, resident of Anandanagar Kalitala, also lost her daughter Akriti Routh in the stampede. "My daughter Akriti, a class X student, and some of our relatives and her friends, went to Chorbagan. I came to know about her death around 8 pm,” said Sudama who seen crying in front of the morgue.
"My mother died before my eyes; I too might not have survived," said 25-year-old Sonu Pal, still in shock after his mother died in a stampede at a Durga Puja pandal in rain-soaked Kolkata on Saturday evening. Pal, a resident of Kumortuli, had gone to see the puja with his mother when it began raining.
"It was raining outside, and nobody wanted to step outside. People who were standing at the entrance to escape the rain kept pushing to get in," he said.
The pressure soon became unbearable, he recalled. "Unable to handle the pressure, everybody inside fell on one another." Pal said he, too, was caught in the pile-up.
"I was also trapped under the crowd. I somehow managed to steady myself and went to my mother, but she was dead," he said. The incident took place around 7.40 pm in the Girish Park police station area.
Kolkata Police said all the injured were taken to Medical College and Hospital for treatment. Grieving relatives of those killed in the stampede questioned who would take responsibility for the deaths, with several expressing anger over the arrangements at the pandal. Family members told reporters they had been asked to return at 10 am on Sunday to collect the bodies.
"We will collect the body, but who will take the responsibility? Where were the police and the administration?" asked Sunny, a neighbour of one of the victims. Shubham Sonkar, whose sister had gone pandal-hopping with family members, recalled that he had been planning her wedding. His sister, who was around 30, died in the stampede. "She is gone today. Who will take the responsibility for this?" he asked. "Others in the group were not hurt, but my sister is no more," he said.
Among those killed was Priya Samaddar, a Class 12 student from Uttar Jogendranagar in North 24 Parganas district, who had visited Kolkata with friends for pandal-hopping. She was a student of Tapati Balika Vidyalaya in New Barrackpore. Her death turned what was meant to be an evening of festive celebrations into mourning for her family and neighbours.
Police officers visited her residence and spoke to her family members. "This was the first time my daughter had gone to Kolkata for pandal-hopping. I don't know what went wrong... I received a call from the police asking me to visit Kolkata Medical College and Hospital," her father, a blouse-cutting artisan, told reporters.
