Patna Stampede: The Glaring Lapses that Led to The Tragedy

The stampede happened at the gate near Ram Goolam Chowk as hordes of people started to exit the ground after Dussehra celebrations at around 6.40 pm. CCTV footage shows that there were no lights in that area.

The District Magistrate of Patna Manish Verma, who was removed from his post two days after the tragedy, allegedly did not hold a crucial meeting to discuss preparations at the ground, where several lakh people gather each year to watch Ravana being burnt down in a symbolic victory of good over evil. This is the same ground where six people died in bomb blasts during a BJP rally last year.

The Commissioner of Patna, N. Vijaylakshmi, too has been transferred for allegedly failing to ensure that all arrangements worked at the grounds - from gates to lighting - before allowing the programme. The Patna DM and Commissioner are both part of a committee that is supposed to monitor arrangements at the Gandhi Maidan.

Security arrangements too were reportedly found to have been inadequate, with enough policemen not deployed at the massive ground. There was no audio system to control or guide the crowds in case of an emergency. The Senior Superintendent of Police of Patna, Manu Maharaj, responsible for security deployment, has also been removed.

According to CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts, officials failed to ensure that all the four big gates and eight small ones at the ground were wide open to allow the crowds to stream out smoothly.

At some gates ice cream vendors had been allowed to park their carts in way that blocked passage. At the time of the stampede, the gate was half closed because of such encroachment.

After the stampede, as ambulances rushed out with victims, the traffic police failed to ensure diversion of vehicles to allow them a clear route. The road from the ground to the Patna Medical College Hospital was jam-packed. Doctors at the hospital said some lives could have been saved if the delay had been avoided.

Arrangements at the Patna Medical College Hospital, where the victims were rushed, were woefully inadequate, a point also made by an angry chief minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi. Patna's largest government hospital was out of many medicines and Kundan Krishnand, Inspector General Patna Range, reportedly gave Rs 3000 to his bodyguards to buy medicines from the market.

There is controversy over Chief Minister Manjhi - who was present at the Gandhi Maidan for the Dussehra celebrations that day - leaving Patna for Gaya soon after. Mr Manjhi returned to the capital only after midnight on Friday. On Dussehra, when massive bandobast is made around the state to ensure law and order and crowd management, Mr Manjhi's predecessors have stayed in Patna to monitor the situation.

Because Mr Manjhi left the city that evening, two key officials - the District Magistrate  and the SSP of Patna - were not at the hospital in the aftermath of the colossal tragedy. The two officials saw off the chief minister at the Patna district border 40 kilometres away and reached the hospital only after 9 pm.