Thirty-two people, most of them women and children, were killed and several injured in a stampede that broke out this evening at the Gandhi Maidan here shortly after the Dussehra celebrations.
The tragedy occurred when people were returning after watching the “Ravan Vadh” ceremony at the Bihar capital’s main Dussehra event at Gandhi Maidan where a huge crowd had gathered to witness the event, police said.
“Thirty-two people have died,” Bihar Home Secretary Amir Subhani said.
Officials said the dead were mainly women and children.
Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manji was present at the Gandhi Maidan where people watched an arrow setting the 60 feet tall effigy of Ravan into flames.
Ex gratia
Condoling the loss of lives in the Patna stampede, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sanctioned an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in the incident.
He also sanctioned Rs 50,000 for each of the critically injured from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
Modi spoke to Bihar Chief Minister Manjhi over telephone this evening and reviewed the situation arising out of the stampede.
Bihar government blamed
Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan blamed the Bihar government over the Patna stampede incident, saying it failed to learn from the past and put in place measures to prevent the tragedy.
“It is not only an unfortunate and regrettable incident but also shameful. Dussehra festivities take place in Gandhi Maidan every year. Still no appropriate arrangements were made... recently there was an incident during Chhatt puja.
There was an incident during Narendra Modi’s rally in October last year,” Prasad told PTI here.
He was referring to the blasts which rocked Modi’s rally venue.
Prasad said while he has spoken to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, a team of NDRF has already left for Patna to assist the state administration.
The Law Minister said that the Centre will render all possible assistance to the state government to deal with the situation.
Prasad and Paswan plan to visit Patna tomorrow to take stock of the situation. Both are from Bihar.
Expressing grief, Paswan attacked the JD(U) government in Bihar for allegedly failing to put in place measures to prevent the tragedy.
He said similar incidents had taken place during Chhatt Puja in Bihar but the state government has “failed to learn lessons.”