The death of devotees at the Gangasagar Mela has triggered a fresh controversy between the West Bengal government and the Centre with a senior Minister in the Mamata Banerjee Cabinet calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet announcing ex gratia for families of victims as an attack “on federal structure.”
Minister for Fire and Emergency Services Sovon Chatterjee described the deaths as “unnatural” ones due to “cold or age-related ailments.”
‘Most unfortunate’
“There has been no stampede there. Terming the deaths as ones related to stampede is most unfortunate and an attack on the federal structure,” the Minister, who is Mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, told journalists. When asked about the number of causalities, Mr. Chatterjee evaded answer.
On Sunday, while returning from Sagar Island, there were reports of a heavy rush at Kachuberia. Minister for Sunderban Affairs Mantam Pakhira had admitted that “pilgrims got impatient due to the long queue at jetty number five in Kachuberi and tried to outdo one another in boarding the vessel” and “six women died of suffocation.”
Later Mr. Pakhira said the deaths were due to “heart attack.”
On Sunday evening, the Prime Minister, in a series of tweets, announced an ex gratia of ₹ 2 lakh to the kin of the deceased and ₹ 50,000 to those injured in the “stampede.” The administration claimed the deaths had anything to with stampede.
Eyewitness’s claim
One of the eyewitnesses Surjeet Singh told The Hindu that there was indeed a “stampede where people fell down on one another.”
“Eight women died there, and I saw family members of two taking bodies away. I saw them dying before my own eyes,” said Mr. Singh, who had come from Gurugram in Haryana.
According to the devotee who was separated from his group of 61 people, the incident occurred at 1.30 p.m. on Sunday. “I had also fallen and could come out only with great difficulty. By the time the police came, the women were already dead,” Mr. Singh said at a camp on Strand Road.
