The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
CPI(M) PB Expresses Sorrow Over Kolkata Incident During Durga Puja Festival
We deeply mourn the deaths and express our deepest condolences for those who lost their lives in the stampede at the Chorbagan Puja pandal. We share the grief of those families who have lost their loved ones. All those injured could have received the best of the medical facilities available in the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. However, the government decided otherwise and acted as a PR agency for a private-run hospital. No amount of sympathy and compensation will be enough for the affected people.
The culprits who were busy in grabbing the Puja Committee under the ruling dispensation instead of adhering to well-established norms and traditions to fortify the safety and security of the visitors must be brought to book. Police and civic authorities, including the disaster management department, who normally gear up to protect the people who gather in the pandals from far-flung areas, were instead deployed to prevent and demolish progressive bookstalls and provide security for VVIPs and their stooges. These authorities must be held responsible, and heads must roll to establish accountability.
Normally, Puja organisers would be involved in year-long preparations from concept, theme, resource mobilisation to its successful implementation. This particular Puja committee was forcibly hijacked from its previous organisers in mid-July by the ruling dispensation. Lack of proper planning for crowd management and absence of time-tested standard practices have led to such tragic and unwarranted incidents. The government must reprioritise its own business.