NEW DELHI, Dec 14: Three persons including a child were killed and at least five others injured in a stampede at a programme to distribute blankets to poor in Asansol town in West Bengal on Wednesday.
Official sources said the blanket distribution programme was organised by a religious group through the BJP leader and the leader of the opposition in the state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari. The people waiting for their turn made a dash towards the dais fearing that they had been left out after Adhikari left the venue in a huff causing the stampede.
The police said neither the organiser took the police permission for the event and informed the police about the blanket distribution nor made proper arrangements for the ceremony. The venue where the event was organised was too small to hold the large crowd invited to take the blankets. “The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, had attended the programme and the trouble started after he had left,” the police said.
Reports say there was chaos as people jostled to get close to the dais where the organisers was distributing the blankets. Five people were injured and have been admitted in the hospital.
“This is a very unfortunate incident…Suvendu Adhikari did not take permission for the event. In the name of blanket distribution, Adhikari called a large number of people to a place, which did not have the capacity to accommodate such a large crowd…Total lack of coordination. Suvendu Adhikari played with the lives of poor people. He is doing politics without any sense of moral responsibility,” Kunal Ghosh, a spokesperson of the TMC charged.
(Manas Dasgupta)