The reason for the crush – reportedly after a public announcement was revamped the loudspeaker by a pujo organising committee member that a part of the pandal had collapsed within the rains – might be discovered: reportedly a large panic rush in the direction of a severely slender, Chakravyuha-like exit stretch. However will this calamity change habits – not simply of organisers and authorities who’ve allowed such legal laxity, but in addition of the citizenry themselves? Saturday’s catastrophe resulted squarely from the absence of any concrete crowd-control measures. It was compounded by what can solely be deemed as ‘herd mentality’, with crowds extra intent on amassing ‘yet one more selfie’ at a big-ticket pandal, and pujo organisers capturing ‘report turnouts’ by way of drone footage, than caring about security.
Such fatalism should be stopped. India’s crowd administration report has been abysmal, even when there have been no carnages. Flouting of fundamental civic norms and security laws – apparently, there have been no ambulance providers close by – and lack of frequent sense appear so as to add as much as a dying want. If authorities – in West Bengal at the moment, and throughout India tomorrow – don’t make implementation of norms and laws non-negotiable and everlasting, the Chorbagan stampede might be one other statistic in a litany of future tragedies.
