Chhat stampede: 20 die in Bihar as makeshift bridge collapses
20 Nov 2012 6:49 AM IST
At least twenty people, most of them women and children, were killed on Monday and scores of others injured as a makeshift bridge caved in triggering a stampede during Chhat Puja at Adalatganj ghat on the bank of river Ganges, a police official said.
The incident took place as the people ran helter and skelter, leading to the stampede. Fear-stricken people trampled on each other after the bridge collapsed at around 1900 hours, Superintendent of Police (SP), City, Jayant Kant said.
The toll may rise as the condition of some of the injured persons was critical, the SP (City) said. The bodies of those killed in the stampede have been sent for post mortem at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) at Patna, Kant said. State Congress president Chaudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser and party spokesman H K Verma accused the Bihar government of constructing a sub-standard make-shift bridge ahead of the Chhath festival. Demanding a CBI probe into the incident, they said the chief minister should resign on moral ground.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced Rs. two lakh compensation to the next of kin of the victims, an official spokesman said. Of the amount, Rs 1.5 lakh would be given by the disaster management department and Rs 50,000 from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
The incident took place as the people ran helter and skelter, leading to the stampede. Fear-stricken people trampled on each other after the bridge collapsed at around 1900 hours, Superintendent of Police (SP), City, Jayant Kant said.
The toll may rise as the condition of some of the injured persons was critical, the SP (City) said. The bodies of those killed in the stampede have been sent for post mortem at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) at Patna, Kant said. State Congress president Chaudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser and party spokesman H K Verma accused the Bihar government of constructing a sub-standard make-shift bridge ahead of the Chhath festival. Demanding a CBI probe into the incident, they said the chief minister should resign on moral ground.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced Rs. two lakh compensation to the next of kin of the victims, an official spokesman said. Of the amount, Rs 1.5 lakh would be given by the disaster management department and Rs 50,000 from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
Next Story
