The Kolkata Police have done a stellar job of crowd and traffic management during Durga Puja for years but that badge of honour was trampled on Saturday night at a pandal in central Kolkata’s Chorebagan, when 19 people were killed in a stampede.
It was the first fatal stampede in Kolkata during the city’s signature festival, but there have been near-misses before when the cops faced unmanageable crowds.
One such near miss happened at the same Chorebagan four years ago. One person died of a cardiac arrest that day.
“We changed the flow route of the crowd so that people had to cross Central Avenue towards the pandal,” a police officer who was handling traffic in the area that day four years ago and who is now retired told The Telegraph Online.
“The crowd was told to move a few hundred yards towards north before taking a right turn to cross the road. That detour gave us more space to manage the crowd,” the policeman said.
When the detour too failed to bring the movement of people under control, power supply to the pandal was switched off and those waiting were informed that there was a disruption in the supply that would last at least 30 minutes.
“Many waiting on Central Avenue left soon after,” the retired officer said. “Once the crowd had thinned a bit, lights were back and pandal gates opened once again. Managing the crowd in a Durga Puja pandal, especially the crowd-puller Pujas, requires quick thinking.”
Transfers, recalls
The current top brass of the Kolkata Police including commissioner Ajay Nand have not “managed” Durga Puja. Out of the 10 divisional heads in the city police, only about three officers have handled Durga Puja in the past.
The “inexperience” of the officers-in-charge of the majority of the 91 police stations under 10 divisions was flagged in a meeting chaired by the Kolkata Police commissioner in July this year.
The OCs were told to gather information from the organisers on Durga Puja pandals in their jurisdictions.
Kolkata has nearly 3,000 Durga Pujas, many of which were patronised by the leaders and ministers of undivided Trinamul while the party was in power and which have since changed hands.
Like the cops, the new organisers too in many of the localities are new to the task of managing mammoth Durga Puja crowds.
A meeting with the Durga Puja organisers was held at Nazrul Mancha in the last week of September. Prior to that meeting the city police chief had instructed all the police stations under the Kolkata Police’s jurisdiction to get details on the themes and the scale, especially of the big-ticket pujas.
Police sources said meetings were also held at the police station level with the organisers, specially the marquee ones.
“There have also been problems between the organisers and the local police stations in many places. The earlier rapport is missing,” claimed one organiser of a Durga Puja in Jadavpur area.
Another organiser with a well-known Durga Puja in north Kolkata said they were called to the police station and handed a circular issued by the state government with general dos and don’ts.
“We were given instructions like the path for the ambulance should be clear, the number of entry and exit points. Inspections were carried out by teams from the Kolkata Police, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and fire services department. These teams should have officials from the public works department who are qualified to assess the weight-bearing capacity of a structure,” he said.
The state home department’s decision to recall nine IPS officers with “experience” of managing Durga Puja in Kolkata a day after the stampede was seen by many as an admission of the chink left exposed the first time in 15 years when Bengal’s biggest festival is being held under a new dispensation.
“These nine officers have handled huge crowds during Durga Puja in the city. They have been recalled to assist in proper crowd management and prevent a repeat of Choerbagan anywhere else in the city,” said a senior officer.
Kolkata Police chief Ajay Nand did not respond to calls and texts sent by The Telegraph Online.
A depleted Kolkata Police
The inexperience of the top brass in handling huge Durga Puja crowds was not the only niggle. The force is woefully depleted.
More than 10,000 of the 22,000 constable posts are vacant. Similarly for sub-inspectors, less than 500 of the 1,200 strength is filled. Around 15 posts of officers in the assistant commissioner-level ranks also remain vacant.
“The force runs on the strength of the constables. Without the constables a police force cannot manage law and order effectively on a daily basis, forget a massive festival like Durga Puja,” a senior police officer, who did not want to be named for obvious reasons, told The Telegraph Online.
This time Kolkata Police had 6,000 personnel of its own along with an additional 6,000 each from the traffic and home guard divisions. The Kolkata Police also deployed 21,000 volunteers to assist the regular force on the ground.
Police sources said the deployment was similar to other years.
This year, the Kolkata Police had identified 247 major crowd-puller Pujas in the city; police personnel were deployed at 27 major pandals while the police divisions were told to make arrangements for 10-15 smaller pandals in each division.
The Kolkata Police had arranged for 30 mobile control vans, 20 Heavy Radio Flying Squads, 10 Special Radio Flying Squads, 42 watchtowers and seven mobile assistance police vans and three launches at the ghats as part of the security plan.
The 247-marquee Puja pandals in the city draw an average footfall of 30,000-40,000 an hour during the peak three days from Saptami to Nabami.
Last year on September 30, the day Ashtami was observed, Chorebagan Sarbojanin drew around 28,000 people in an hour. On the same day, another major draw also located in central Kolkata notorious for the constricted road space, Santosh Mitra Square aka Lebutala Park had 48,000 visitors in an hour.
Access to Sarada Park, where the Chorebagan Sarbojanin Puja has been held for the last 91 years, is through narrow lanes like Parbati Ghosh Lane, Bhuban Banerjee Lane and Radha Madhab Lane.
In the past, the crowds at Chorebagan made their entry from Central Avenue and had the option of dispersing towards Bidhan Sarani. This year that option was unavailable.
Initially, the Kolkata Police had deployed one inspector and 25 personnel for Chorebagan Sarbojanin. From October 13 onwards, seeing the surge in crowd, the deployment was changed to two divisional commissioners, three assistant commissioners and 100-odd personnel.
“In the past, it was mandatory for officers from the rank of special commissioners and below to be on the road during the night,” said a retired IPS officer, who has served in Kolkata Police and Bengal Police.
“I was once stationed near the Kaiser Street Durga Puja, which used to be a big draw in those days, and another time at College Square. At a time, there could be anywhere between 1,000 to 3,000 people in the crowd. Those were critical moments. In College Square what was done was the crowd had to walk round and round for an additional 2 km. The people must have felt it was unnecessary but without that it would have been impossible to keep them safe.”
This is also one of the reasons why drop-gates are set-up near the major puja pandals to “herd” the crowd as required.
“Drop gates used to be set up to ensure that the number of people near the Chorebagan pandal stayed within manageable limits,” said a police officer.
Questions also remain around the Chorebagan Sarbojanin and its new committee comprising several members from the ruling BJP including the local MLA Vijay Ojha and a nephew of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari among the chief patrons.
After the old management committee was removed and a new one took its place, from the artisans to the private security agency everyone was changed.
More than a decade ago, IIM-Calcutta did a study on the “challenges and achievements of Kolkata Police in their role of ensuring safety for the public during the Durga Puja mega-festival.”
The Kolkata Police have to conduct their own study to answer when and how their management of Bengal’s biggest festival – which had always drawn praise – came under a question mark.
To be fair, the Chorebagan incident remains the only blemish on the force’s handling of Durga Puja 2026.
Retired Justice Anindita Roy Saraswati, who has been made the chief of the special investigation team investigating the stampede, said on Thursday that three months was too short to submit the report but the team would strive to meet the deadline.