Indore temple tragedy: Death toll rises to 36, youngest victim 2 yr-old boy
Darpan News Desk IANS, 31 Mar, 2023 12:04 PM
Bhopal, March 31 (IANS) The death toll in Indore's Sri Baleshwar Mahadev temple tragedy has risen to 36, with the body of the last missing person - a 53-year-old man - being retrieved from the deep stepwell on Friday afternoon.
With this, an over 24-hour-long rescue operation by around 140 personnel including 75 Indian Army men and SDERF (State Disaster Emergency Response Force) was concluded.
Initiating action, Indore police have registered a case of culpable homicide against Sevaram Galani, who is said to be head of Sri Baleshwar Mahadev temple trust. Meanwhile, the Indore Municipal Corporation said it had suspended two officers (a building officer and a building engineer), who were in charge of Patel Nagar area where the temple is located.
Out of total 36 people who died in the heart wrenching incident, the youngest victim was a two-year-old boy, Hitansh, while the eldest one was an 80-year-old woman identified as Jayvanti Devi, according to police. Most of the victims were women.
At least 20 people, who were rescued safely in the first four hours of the incident, were admitted at Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital, popularly known as MY Hospital. Four to five of them were at a critical stage.
As per the official reports, over one hundred residents from several nearby localities thronged the temple to offer their prayer on the occasion of Ram Navami on Thursday morning. While, were busy in chanting mantras as the 'havan' process at the temple was going on, around 11.30 a.m., a concrete area on which around 40-45 people were standing and were praying caved-in and they all fell into a deep step-well. The people were not aware that the place where they were standing was an actually a makeshift cover over the deep stepwell, which was illegally covered years back.
Sources told IANS that the the Indore civic body had issued a couple of notices to the temple trust directing to remove the concrete slab from the stepwell, including a fresh notice issued in January this year, but no action was taken.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, accompanied by Home Minister Narottam Mishra, inspected the incident spot on Friday, where they were joined by Water Resource Minister Tulsi Silawat and Indore's Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav.
"We have directed a statewide survey and probe of all such covered bawlis (wells), to prevent such tragedies in future. Also, all open borewells will be traced and action initiated against those responsible. A magistral inquiry has also been ordered and basis of its reports the action would be initiated against," Chouhan said in a media briefing upon reaching Indore on Friday morning.
He and the ministers also visited the MY hospital to meet those rescued and were receiving medical treatment there. However, they had to face the ire of the people as a large number of people had gathered at the hospital and shouted slogans against him.
The visa backlog issue is of utmost concern to the Indian students who are trying to return to educational institutions in Australia following the Covid pandemic. Jaishankar, who is on his second visit to Australia, said he was assured that the situation has improved and about 77,000 Indian students are back in Australia.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Special Cell, Jasmeet Singh said that the arrested gangsters, identified as Deepak Arora alias Deepa alias Popat and Gulshan Kumar alias Gulia, were arrested from the Lado Sarai area in the national capital.
BJP leader Bagga had moved the High Court while challenging the non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him by a Mohali Court in May. While pronouncing the judgment in Bagga case, Justice Anoop Chitkara said the court had seen all the tweets and posts placed on record by the parties.
In view of the current escalation of hostilities in Ukraine, Indian nationals are advised to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine. They must strictly follow the safety and security guidelines issued by the Ukrainian Government and local authorities, the advisory said.
India reported 1,957 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, against 2,424 Covid cases recorded on the previous day, said the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday. In the same period, the country has recorded 8 more Covid related deaths, taking the death toll to 5,28,822 as per the report.
Badal's assertions come in the wake of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar saying that he will be meeting his Punjab counterpart regarding the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal on October 14 in Chandigarh.
