Kolkata: In an unfortunate incident about three elderly devotees died, and at least 100 fell sick, due to heat and humidity at a religious gathering, 'Danda Utsav', popularly called 'Doi chire utsav' in Panihati in North 24-Parganas district on Sunday.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called up Panihati MLA, Nirmal Ghosh seeking information from him. She later tweeted: "Distressed to know of three old devotees' death due to heat and humidity in Danda Mahotsav at ISKCON temple at Panihati. CP and DM have rushed, all help being provided. My condolences to the bereaved families, solidarity to devotees." Nirmal Ghosh said that the Chief Minister has directed to give compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of the kin of three devotees who died at the festival.
According to sources, the religious festival is being held for about the past 500 years.
The excitement about this year's fair was high as it could not be organised for the last two years due to the Covid pandemic.Since early morning devotees started gathering at the Mahotsavtala ghat in Panihati to celebrate the 506th 'Danda Utsav' commonly known as 'Doi chire utsav'. Amidst the humid and hot weather devotees were standing in long queues to reach the place of the festival and offer puja at the temple.Around 11:30 am, a few of the devotees fell sick. While the volunteers tried to check on them, they found three devotees had already died.In the uncomfortable weather condition, several other devotees standing in the queue started feeling sick due to dehydration. Immediately Panihati Municipality and Police were informed. Acting promptly, cops started rescuing the sick people to Sagar Dutta hospital and Panihati state general hospital while Health department employees of Panihati civic body attended to the devotees who had fallen sick before sending them to various hospitals.
Ghosh on Sunday evening said: "So far three persons have died and around 100 were hospitalised. Most, however, have been discharged after treatment. Around eight people are still undergoing treatment at the hospital."
Though Ghosh claimed that only three persons have died, unconfirmed sources said that the death toll had risen to five by Sunday evening. This religious festival in Panihati has a historic background as Sri Ramakrishna had attended the 'Doi chire utsav' here in 1885. Sri Ramakrishna along with his close associates came to Panihati by boat. In the 15th century, Nityananda Mahaprabhu during his stay in Panihati to spread 'Hari Nam' had asked Raghunath Das, one of the devotees of Sri Chaitanya to start the 'Doi chire utsav.'