‘Not enough police, govt hospital lacked facilities’: Kolkata pandal tragedy raises questions over emergency response

Sonu Ojha, a resident of Kolkata’s Chorebagan area, was chatting with two of his friends at a tea stall on Amar Basu Sarani and watching the crowd move towards the entrance of the puja pandal moments before the stampede. It was drizzling, with occasional spells of moderate rain.

“We could feel that something wasn’t right. The people were anxious and getting restless to take shelter under some shade as most of them weren’t carrying umbrellas. Then we heard that a stampede has started near the exit on Bhuban Banerjee Lane. All three of us rushed to the spot and what we saw was hell,” said Ojha, 37, a tv-mechanic who has closed his shop for the puja.

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People were still rushing out of the pandal. While some were lying on the road in unconscious state, some were ill and some gasping for breath. A few were injured and could hardly walk.

“We carried a middle-aged woman on a plastic chair and took her to a cab. Her relative was with her. They rushed to the hospital and we went back to the spot to help others. There were many other locals who had started helping the victims,” he said.

In a video that surfaced on social media, people could be seen carrying an unconscious young woman and rushing down the lane.

“There were not enough police and organisers couldn’t be seen anywhere. It was the local residents who started the rescue operation. I helped an elderly man who had come with his grandson. I made the sit in an empty food stall and arranged water from a house. I told them to wait there till the rush was over,” said Vivek Sonkar, another resident.

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Most of the victims were rushed to the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital which was around two kilometres away from the stampede spot.

A junior doctor, who did not wish to be named, said injured victims and bodies were brought to the hospital in cabs and ambulances. Relatives and family members of the victims also arrived one after another.

“Some of the victims were declared dead while some had fractures. Many had fallen ill due to the suffocation and pressure of crowd and stampede in the pandal,” he said.

Allegations also surfaced that the state-run hospital lacked adequate facilities to treat the victims, forcing some of them to be referred to a private hospital. A section of junior doctors at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told media persons that the hospital lacked proper trauma-care facilities, prompting the referrals.

The junior doctors also said that critically injured road accident victims brought to the hospital are referred to SSKM Hospital or RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

“This is true. There is no proper facility at the CMCH for treating such trauma victims. The state health minister was seen on saying before television channels that victims would be treated at a private hospital. Several victims were referred to a private hospital on EM Bypass. This only implies that the state-run hospital can’t cater to such emergencies and disasters,” said Aniket Mahata, a prominent face of the RG Kar movement.

“These are baseless allegations. Those who are making these allegations seem to be knowing everything. Why study in a medical college then? There are so many avenues. If anyone has allegations he should come and meet the authorities and raise the demands,” Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay, state health minister told the media.