West Bengal Sets Up Judicial Panel to Probe Deadly Kolkata Pandal Stampede

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Wednesday announced the formation of a six-member judicial probe panel to investigate the stampede in the community Durga Puja pandal of Chorbagan Sarbojanin in Kolkata on the night of October 17 which claimed 19 human lives.  According to the order issued by the West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the judicial probe panel will be led by Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati (retired) as the Chairperson. The other five members of the probe committee will be the Principal Secretary to the State Disaster Management and Civil Defence department, the Director General of the Special Task Force (STF) of the state police, a second representative from the state police in the rank of Additional Director General, a representative from the state Home and Hill Affairs department, not below the rank of Joint Secretary, and representative from the National Disaster Response Force in Kolkata. (IANS)