Kolkata pandal stampede: Chorbagan Sarbojanin idols taken for immersion without necessary farewell rituals
Kolkata, Oct 24 (IANS) The idols of Chorbagan Sarbojanin community Durga Puja in Kolkata were ultimately taken for immersion on Saturday but without necessary farewell rituals being performed every year by the local women yearly on this occasion.
After the idols were brought out of the Puja pandal on Saturday evening, the local people assembled in front of the idols for a brief period and prayed for the souls of the 19 people killed in a tragic stampede on the night of October 17.
Even the traditional ritual where the women bid farewell to Goddess Durga with vermillion, betel leaf and sweets were not practised this time.
“After the stampede tragedy on the night of October 17, it was mutually decided that this time the idols will be taken for immersion without performing the regular rituals. Instead, we prayed to Maa Durga to provide strength and courage to the family members of the deceased persons in the tragic stampede. We also apologised to Maa Durga for not performing her farewell rituals,” a local woman said while speaking to the media persons.
Initially, there were confusions on when the immersion of the idols of Chorbagan Sarbojanin will happen, as the administration then decided that the pandal and idols will be kept intact until the investigation in the stampede is completed.
However, on Thursday, Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati (retired), the Chairpersons of the state-government constituted judicial probe panel to investigate in the matter, permitted immersion of the idols but only after keeping the pandal structure.
Therefore as per the instructions, the Chorbagan Sarbojanin organisers, instead of handing the exercise of bringing out the idols from the Puja pandals themselves, hired 40 expert and professional porters to conduct that exercise, so that the pandal structure was not disturbed anyway.
The entire exercise was conducted under the supervision of a team of police officers from the Kolkata Police.
After a brief halt outside the pandal, the idols were taken to the banks of river Ganges, under police supervision for immersion with the usual enthusiasm of the local people in being part of the journey totally missing.
Besides, the judicial probe panel, a special investigation team (SIT) of the Kolkata Police is conducting a separate and parallel probe in the matter.
Already nine persons have been arrested in this connection, of which two are accused of making a misleading announcement that triggered the panic among the devotees present in the pandal on the night of October 17, which ultimately led to the tragic stampede.
–IANS
src/khz
