A day after West Bengal’s ‘puja’ celebrations ended in tragedy in north Kolkata, killing 19 people and leaving 25 others injured in a stampede on Saturday,
October 17, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari questioned the roles of temporary home guards who were on duty during the incident. CM Adhikari brought the on-duty guards under the scanner on Sunday, October 18, and scrutinised their roles in the incident. Taking a further dig at the previous ruling party, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), the WB CM claimed that the current state government was carrying a “baggage of rubbish” thrust onto the administration’s shoulders by the former regime. “These home guards are not new recruits. They were on duty for the third year in a row, following their earlier appointments in 2024 and 2025,” the WB CM was quoted as saying as per PTI. The stampede happened on Saturday evening, at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal, following a crowd surge amid rain. Later, the CM said that he had asked for the list of names of temporary home guards who were on duty at the puja pandal. “We are carrying on our shoulders a massive pile of rubbish as baggage. A clean-up will take time,” Adhikari asserted. He pointed out that one of the home guards he tried to talk to at the pandal early this morning “could not even understand, let alone speak, Bengali”. “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. No one knows where the death toll would have reached,” Adhikari said. He said that instead of proper entry and exit gates, only one opening, divided by a hand-held rope by the home guards, served as both. “When it started to rain, they simply dropped the ropes and took shelter to save themselves from getting drenched,” the chief minister claimed, suggesting that an absence of an entry-exit divide led to the commotion spiraling out of control. Adhikari, though, added that the role of the puja organisers and permission-issuing authorities will also be probed. “The organisers will also have to shoulder responsibility. There were problems with the theme as well. 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 (SIT), which will be headed by a sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court, provided the state receives the nod of the Chief Justice. 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. (PTI Inputs)
