However, more details have emerged that added more angles on what exactly or whether a combination of factors led to one of the biggest tragedies in the city in recent times. A loudspeaker warning people to leave the pandal was suspected to have triggered the stampede in a North Kolkata neighbourhood that killed 19 on Saturday.
In such a situation, the loudspeaker warning would have driven hundreds into those narrow lanes. In the past too, crowds in Chorbagan have occasionally become unmanageable, forcing pandal organisers to stop people from entering to see the idols of Goddess Durga. During those moments swift police intervention to keep things under control had likely averted a possible tragedy. The video that NDTV accessed indeed showed crowds stuck at the pandal while a voice in the background warned them the place could collapse any moment. “I must say there was some negligence on the part of our committee. “What kind of a pandal did you set up – one that would collapse? Why would it collapse? They ought to have known that as many as a thousand people could enter the pandal at once. “Such an announcement was indeed made while we were still inside our house. Suddenly, I heard someone say that the pandal at Chorbagan was going to collapse. I rushed outside and saw a girl with a split head, bleeding profusely,” she added.
Because of that negligence,” Runu Das, a woman who saw the incident unfold right before her eyes, told NDTV, this situation has arisen precisely.
Such a warning would have had to be supported by a robust crowd management system which should have been in place, residents said. The latest incident, however, indicated that a well-planned crowd management system had been missing, according to eyewitnesses. Whether this was due to bad planning by an “inexperienced” Durga Puja committee is a question that would have to be visited eventually during the investigation. There was even an announcement that the pandal would collapse – this was no mere rumour,” she said.
